Black Ice
by Be Boring
Summary: COMPLETED Kay thought that her life was settled. She thought that she was safe. She even thought that her old friends were out of her life for good. Well, she thought wrong. Sequel to The Second Key, final installation of my Kay trilogy.
1. Prologue: 4 Months Later

Author's Note: First thing's first. This is a sequel to "The Second Key," which is also a sequel to "Outside." I can guarantee that you will be completely lost if you don't read those first. Secondly, I took a new approach to writing this story. Instead of writing it as I update, I wrote the entire thing before I posted this, so the story is actually completed. That's so I don't leave people waiting if something comes up at home and I can't update as soon as I'd like.

Disclaimer: Kay is the only one I own.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Prologue: 4 Months Later

Pain. Extreme pain. Why was it that she couldn't feel anything else? The wall of her room looked so far away, or was that her ceiling? She had been disoriented like this for at least an hour as her contractions tore through her abdomen. Ames was at work, Ray was at school, and they were suffering another brownout. Kay had already tried to use the phone several times, but nothing was working yet. It shouldn't be like this, why is my head so screwed up? _she thought frantically, clutching her stomach and struggling to breathe like all of her books had told her to. Perhaps it was her odd DNA that was throwing everything off, but she didn't care at this point, she just wanted someone to make it all stop. Her room was spinning around her until it was to the point where she wasn't even sure she was standing or not._

It was another few hours before there was hardly a period of relief between the contractions, and something told her that she was going to have to push soon. Sure enough, she put as much power behind her pushes as possible and suddenly there was another shriek blending in with hers. She sat up quickly so that she could see her own child. Her body froze as her eyes landed on the deformed figure that was on the floor between her legs. Was the skin really red, or was that blood all over its body? Its head had no skin, but left her staring at portions of a brain peeking through cartilage that also allowed its blood to flow freely onto the floor. The arms and legs were far too short and shriveled, and the back was curled over like it was hunchbacked. Suddenly, the thing lifted itself into a sitting position and glared at her with eyes that sent a horrible chill straight through her. Those were Ben's eyes.

"It's all your fault," it hissed, making terrible gurgling noises as it gasped to get air through the fluid that was in its throat. "You did this to me and to him, and we will get our revenge. You won't get away with hurting us like this." Those awful eyes suddenly lifted up and stared at something behind her, forcing her to crane her neck to look up behind her. Ben stood not even a foot away, but it hardly looked like him anymore. Like the thing that was supposed to be her baby, there was no skin on his face and blood dripped onto her shoulder as he bent over her.

"That baby should have been mine, so I made it mine in my own way. Don't you see a resemblance?" he sneered, a trickle of blood running down his chin and dripping off. Then his hand was on her shoulder, shaking her until the scene around her blurred and the only thing she could hear was his voice calling her name.

* * *

A hand really was on her shoulder shaking her and a voice was really calling her, but it wasn't Ben. "Kay? Kay, wake up, you're having another nightmare!" Ames was almost shouting in order to break through the panic that her dream had placed on her. She sat up and clutched the blankets against her body to hold off the chill of her cold sweat. A sheet was wrapped around Ames's waist, so she must have woken him up and brought him running from his bedroom. He moved silently to a crib in the corner and reached in to pull out something wrapped in a warm, knitted, miniature afghan. As he approached her again with the bundle, she heard a soft cry and a tear of relief slid down her cheek. "See? She's just fine." 

Kay reached up and eagerly took her daughter into her arms, reveling in the perfection of those ten little fingers, cute little nose, and clear blue eyes. A tuft of light brown hair curled on her sensitive head, and Kay just had to run her fingers through it. She had had the same dream every night, but it never failed to shake her up. She had told Ames about the deformed baby in her dream, but she had left out the part about Ben. Why aggravate him? He hated Ben with a passion, although she wasn't quite sure why. It wasn't like he could possibly be jealous, seeing as how he didn't care about her as anything other than an occasional bed partner when they were too lonely. That hadn't even happened for over a month, and she didn't think she ever wanted to be with him like that again. It confused her mind too much, and it was uncomfortable for both of them when they would unwittingly say the wrong name in bed. It was easier to just remain separate.

She didn't understand why that nightmare wouldn't leave her alone even when she knew her daughter was perfectly healthy. She had hoped that her child's birth a week ago would be the start of a new page in her life, which was actually why she named her Paige. It stuck in her mind better than anything else, and Ames couldn't talk her out of it. As far as she was concerned, Paige was entirely hers and he didn't even have a say in what she should be named. He already had Ray and hadn't even wanted a hybrid child in the first place, so she considered their daughter solely hers. She hadn't told him that, but she knew he could sense it. Tonight was actually a rarity, he almost never got the chance to hold Paige unless he was bringing her to her mother.

Soft footsteps padded down the hallway and Ray's small head popped around the side of the doorframe. "What's going on? Why is everyone in here?"

Ames unconsciously gripped the sheet around his waist tighter, as if embarrassed to be seen without clothes. Kay gestured for the little boy to come in and replied, "I just had a bad dream, so your dad and sister were trying to calm me down. Want to help out?"

Ray automatically jumped on the bed and hugged her, his small fingers digging into the soft cloth of her tank top that she wore to bed. "I had a bad dream too, that's why I woke up. Can I sleep in here with you?" He rested his cheek against her blonde hair, taking in the lavender scent that it always carried. When Kay's hair had started to grow out and the blonde was visible at the roots, she had asked Ames to buy her some dye with her original color. Why bother with keeping it red?

Kay smiled and nodded. "Sure, as long as you don't mind Paige crying every now and then. I think we should all go back to sleep before we have to get up again."

She started to climb out of bed to return the baby to her crib, but Ames held out his arms. After a second of hesitation, she sighed and handed Paige over to her father. She never took her eyes off of him as he carried her back to the crib, even though she knew that he wouldn't do anything to hurt her. He had a strange soft spot for children, especially his own. As soon as his arms were free, Ames gave a quiet nod to say goodnight and left the room without a word. Ray slid over and latched himself onto Kay's side as she lay back down. She chuckled and ruffled his hair, then turned off the bedside lamp. She listened silently as Ray's breathing slowed until she knew he was asleep, then she contented herself with falling into a deep slumber to the sound of his light snores. As she faded into sleep, it occurred to her that she hadn't been this happy for months. If Ames could magically disappear without it affecting Ray she would be even happier, but she was fine with how everything was right now. She had Ray and Paige, and right now she wasn't sure she would ever need much more.

* * *

Max groaned with frustration as she and Alec came to another roadblock. There seemed to be an epidemic of these things in Seattle lately. A small contingent of Familiars had been spotted a few days before going through an initiation ceremony with one of their children, and now the population of Seattle was in an uproar over the fact that any of them were still left in the state, much less their own city. Max was glad that the scar had faded off her palm by now, she would hate for the police to see something like that. 

"Remind me again why you're not with your girlfriend right now?" she asked irritably. Alec had been practically clinging to her all day.

He glanced all around as though he was afraid Jondy was hiding nearby, then he mumbled, "Her next heat cycle is coming up, and she said something really weird to me last night. Since you guys are so damn fertile during your heat, we usually pile on the protection, but she told me that she didn't want to do that this time. Hey, she might be ready for a kid, but I don't want anyone calling me 'Daddy' who's under the age of eighteen. I would just tell her 'no way', but you know how pissy she gets right around this time."

She lifted her glasses so they were on top of her head and glared at him. "Okay, I can see you're scared of Jondy right now, but why are you following _me_? Why not Zack or Brin? You know how willing they'd be to keep the two of you from having sex. Neither one likes you very much, even though Brin works harder to tolerate you."

"Because Zack's solution to keeping me from getting Jondy pregnant would be to castrate me, and Brin would just hand me over to him anyway. That's something else I'm not looking for at this stage in my life."

"Listen, grouchy as she may be right now, you'll still have to tell her sometime that you don't want kids right now. She'll understand, it's not like she would force you into something like that against your will. Now, if you really want to keep following me around, at least come up with something clever to get us past this roadblock!"

He slid off his bike and looked at the crowd of people carefully, then grinned and strode off until he was out of Max's sight. Suddenly, she heard his voice shout, "Hey, here's one of 'em! It's one of those cult freaks!" The cops tore through the crowd and Max heard several tasers go off at the same moment that Alec returned to her. "I recognized a guy that nearly busted my kneecap back at the big fight."

Max didn't have to ask what he meant by "the big fight." Everyone, whether they were ordinary, transgenic, or Familiar, knew what the big fight was. It was the day that all three groups clashed together at the football stadium; the day that the cult was exposed to the world and Thula, the key to the Coming, died. The months since that day had been almost heaven for Max. She suddenly didn't have to hide since the majority of the country viewed them as heroes for stopping the cult, and she had managed to meet the rest of her siblings. Zane had been the first, and his smiling face was only the first of many that she saw in the following weeks. Syl and Krit had been thrilled to see her again, and Gina, Cade, Vince, Lynn, and Kyle were all so excited to see her.

The two of them slipped through the throng of people and passed to the front of the line without a single person looking in their direction, but as soon as they were through, Max lit into him again. "Are you sure she flat out told you she didn't want to use protection? Maybe you just misunderstood something she said."

"No, I understood. She directly told me that she didn't want me to buy condoms this time."

Max grimaced slightly. Of all the people in the world she had to have a sex talk with, it had to be Alec. "Are you sure that she just doesn't trust them and has decided she doesn't want to have sex at all during her cycle? I know I didn't put a lot of faith into anything around that time. We're so fertile that it almost doesn't matter what you use, if it doesn't work perfectly then we're more than likely going to end up pregnant."

"You know, I hate to ask this, but you made me a little curious. What happens to those of you that were cured of your heat cycles in Manticore? Are you less likely to get pregnant?"

She shrugged, not sure how to answer that. She wasn't a doctor, how would she know? "I don't really know, but I wouldn't think so. Jace got pregnant when she was at Manticore, and I'm sure they got rid of her cycles. Look, I doubt Jondy really wants to have a kid right now, things are still a little unstable for us. I know I sure don't."

He smirked, following her as she held up her pass and shouted, "JamPony messenger!" As they went through, he asked, "Does it scare you that a baby with Logan may not have our extra abilities?"

Max slowed and stared at him. "What do you mean? I just think it's too soon to have a baby, that's all, not to mention I'm not sure I'm ready for it. Tinga's son Case was just like us, so why wouldn't my baby be?"

"It's just that Manticore did several experiments with transgenic offspring, including crosses between ordinary people and the X series. The results weren't positive, most of the kids either came out as simple and ordinary as their non-transgenic parent, or they were disasters. Some of the kids were seriously deformed. Only a few came out with more-than-human capabilities, but they still weren't anything extraordinary. By Tinga, by the way, are you referring to 656? She was considered a fluke. She's the only one to have ever given birth to a promising child."

Why did he have to tell her this? It's not like it mattered to her if her future child was more like her or Logan, but just the thought that it could be deformed seriously worried her. "Then why did Renfro start the breeding program if we didn't produce kids as powerful as us?"

He rolled his eyes, then started talking in a manner that was strangely similar to how a teacher would talk to a child who didn't understand what one plus one was. "That's different, in that case _both _parents were X5. The DNA merged perfectly and the children were what you would expect a second generation X5 to be. I know they're not old enough to see anything special yet, but Gem has been doing a lot of blood tests on Ty."

This was news to Max. "Really? I didn't know that. How did you find out?"

"She ordered some equipment and I'm the one who delivered it. She told me all about it then. She just wanted to know that Ty would be able to defend herself in the future if things start going backwards again and everyone turns on us."

With how far things had come in the last several months, Max didn't even want to think about everything going back to the world of fear. This was the most free she had felt in a long time. She was free to come and go as she pleased, without having to conceal her barcode. Naturally, there were still people who didn't like the transgenics, but enough people were on their side that the antagonists kept their mouths shut. She just hoped things kept moving forward, then she could think about settling down and having a real life.

* * *

The tiny café around him was falling apart, but it didn't concern him much. The taste of their coffee was foul in a way that he couldn't describe, but it gave him the necessary boost he would need for the day. The sun was still rising in the sky, which meant that he was late. Usually he drank his coffee before the sun came up, but he had worn himself out yesterday. Traveling was more of a chore than he remembered. Then again, his head hadn't always hurt like it did last night. That was something that had happened regularly after his head injury of several months earlier. Since then, frequent migraines had plagued him, sometimes so strong that he couldn't bear to get out of bed and face the world, and last night had been one of the worst he'd ever had. After driving nearly all day and being confronted by a very unpleasant truck driver who didn't think too highly of the barcode on his neck, he'd started to feel the beginnings of what he had hoped then would just be a regular headache, but, as he had feared, its power had steadily increased until he trapped himself in a hotel room with the lights off, lying on the bed with the blankets thrown up over his face to block out any spare light trickling in through the window. 

Some people smiled and tipped their heads at him politely as they passed, while others simply ignored him, but he didn't pay much attention either way. His tolerance for the general public was nearly gone, which was why he preferred to sit in a distant corner of the church all day. This café was much too crowded for his liking, and he was starting to tire of ignoring a woman sitting at another table who kept sending him suggestive looks. Dealing with people was not his strong point.

The door to the café swung open again, and finally Ben rose to his feet, ready to head off for the church. This place simply couldn't fit one more person into it and still be comfortable for him to be in. The newcomer swept straight past him without even looking at him, but Ben whirled around. Was he seeing things? He had to be, his mind was playing tricks on him after last night's migraine. After a good second look, however, he knew nothing was wrong with his eyes. Ames White was standing in line at the counter, glancing at his watch every so often and throwing irritated looks at an older couple at the front of the line who couldn't seem to decide what they wanted to drink. Ben pushed the other sounds in the café out of his mind, zeroing in on White's voice. "Damn it, people, just take the cow shit they call coffee and get out of the line!" he muttered grumpily under his voice. Although it was particularly hard to tell with Familiars, Ben thought the other man looked tired, which was confirmed when White barely stifled a yawn with his hand.

Just get out of here, he told himself viciously. He didn't want to have to stare at that man any longer than he absolutely had to. He would, however, be perfectly happy to let the rest of the cult know where he was if he found an opportunity and let them tear him apart. _No, just forget about him. He's not the one to blame for everything that's happened, **she** is._ With that, he strode out the door without looking back.

Ames White's head jerked up suddenly. Why did he feel like someone had been watching him? The haunting feeling of eyes had caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand straight up, but he couldn't spot the culprit. His eyes wandered to the still swinging café door, and, almost against his will, he rushed to it and peered out into the street. Nothing caught his eye, but the feeling that he had just missed whoever it was continued to nag him as he walked back in and settled himself at the back of the line. He couldn't worry about that just now. He had a special meeting later, and he wanted to be completely focused. With his current displacement from the cult, it just wasn't safe to be distracted around the High Priest of the Conclave.

* * *

A/N 2: Please let me know what you think. :) 


	2. A New Hope

Author's Note: **Astra**, I'm planning on updating every four days, and I'll let everyone know if something changes. I was just so sick of getting writer's block or having something else come up and I ended up making everyone wait for a month. Now the chapters can come out regularly.

Disclaimer: Actually, I remembered that I also own Paige, so at the moment I own two characters. I'm so proud. :)

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 1: A New Hope

Kay paced meaninglessly around the house, wishing she didn't feel so helplessly, irreversibly useless. She wasn't accustomed to nearly constant silence, only broken by Paige's occasional cries. X5 babies didn't require as much care as ordinary children, so Paige spent most of the day sleeping. In fact, the past week had seemed hardly any different from when she was pregnant, except for the fact that she occasionally had to feed Paige, change her diaper, or give her a bath, not to mention the time she spent just watching her daughter sleep peacefully. She loved staring in wonder at what she'd created, but eventually a relentless need for action would surge through her veins and she would do exactly what she was doing now, pace the house until she felt some of the energy die out. She couldn't risk going outside; if anyone were to see her, everything would go up in smoke. Ames was allowed to go out and earn money, but only because it was required and he wasn't quite as much of a risk factor as she was. Even she had to admit that.

If the cult was furious with Ames for impregnating the genetically enhanced second key, they were even more furious with her for killing the original key. Even with Thula's murder aside, her mere existence was enough to infuriate them. Her life was a form of sacrilege to them, considering that they didn't believe in having more than one key per generation and they were unswervingly against genetic engineering. _Just imagine if I told them that Ames was the one who actually killed Thula,_ she thought with a smirk.

Her feet eventually carried her into the room that they often referred to as Ames's office, even though it wasn't much more than a storage room for things that he didn't want the cult to know. Files were stacked neatly on the floor all around the room, stuffed nearly to their bursting point, but for the life of her Kay didn't know why he needed to keep so much crap lying around. She didn't know what was in most of it, even though she knew he had stolen every scrap of paperwork concerning her pregnancy from Harbor Lights Hospital. The rest of it was a mystery.

For the first time in the eight months she had lived there, Kay decided to look through some of the files. _You probably won't even understand most of what you're looking at,_ a little voice protested in the back of her mind, but she ignored it. If she didn't understand it, then what was the harm? She was bored. If Ames happened to ask, that was what she'd tell him. He couldn't argue too much, despite just having a baby she was still considerably stronger than him. Without further ado, she settled herself down on the floor and grabbed the nearest stack of files. The first folder was haphazardly thrown together, unlike the others, which were neatly organized. The first piece of paper she picked up was nothing more than a slip of notebook paper on which he had scribbled down a date. _Wednesday, March 17, 2021. That was just last week. _She pondered it for a moment, then her eyes widened. _This is Paige's birthday._ She still wasn't used to that yet. Why would Ames have written that down? When she looked at the document under it, which was a release form from Harbor Lights Hospital on Monday, July 20, 2020, she realized that she must have opened the file about Paige. She understood why he would have the hospital papers, but why had he stored Paige's birthday? He would be able to remember it, there was no reason for him to write it down.

She flipped through a few more papers, most of which were just more hospital crap that she had already seen before when he'd first stolen them, but then she landed on something else. It looked like the results of a blood test. Just one glance told her it wasn't hers, but she saw all the traces of genetic engineering in the results before her. _Whose is this?_ After staring at it for nearly a minute, the only possible conclusion came to her, but she didn't see how he had managed it. _How could he have taken a blood sample from Paige without me finding out?_ Kay stood up abruptly and rushed to her room, hurrying to the crib and looking down at her daughter. "I'm sorry I have to do this, honey, but you can get some more sleep later," she whispered guiltily, then reached down and lifted Paige out of the crib. Almost immediately Paige started to cry in protest, not exactly thrilled about having been woken before she was ready, but for the first time Kay ignored it. She gently shushed her daughter and said anything that came to mind in a fruitless and halfhearted attempt to calm her down, but her mind was too focused on studying the baby's skin to really put in a full effort. It didn't take too long to find what she was looking for, a tiny, almost completely faded bruise directly in the soft crease of her elbow, the only remnant of a needle entering her. Even the puncture mark had already disappeared. Kay sat there, dumbstruck, as she finally rocked her daughter gently to put her back to sleep.

When had he done it? She had always been so careful about letting him handle Paige, she would definitely have noticed if he had jabbed a needle into her arm. Then there was the fact that it appeared to be almost completely healed already. Did this mean he had done it a while ago? How had he managed it? _You weren't so careful when you gave birth to Paige. Don't you remember? He's the one who helped you deliver her, not to mention when he took her to clean her up and sterilize the umbilical cord. He was out of your sight with her for several minutes while you were recovering,_ the little voice pointed out, sounding very pleased with itself. Kay wished she could push it out of her head, but it was right, Ames had been alone with Paige for quite some time at the very beginning of her life. Had he taken the blood sample then?

Now that she knew when it had happened, a new question occurred to her. _Why_ had he done it? Was he hoping that his DNA would cancel out her genetic engineering? That was ridiculous, and she knew that he knew better. She glanced back down at the paper in her hand, but she couldn't determine anything else. She had never been taught to read these things; what little she did know, she had figured out herself. Detecting transgenic blood was the only thing she was good at. _But Ames knows how to read blood tests. He told you so back when Paige was first conceived. He even commented that it was the only medical thing he really knew,_ the voice jeered, sounding more snidely pleased all the time.

It wasn't until Kay snapped out of her thoughts and noticed the silence of the room that she realized Paige had fallen asleep again. She carefully placed her back in the crib, then rushed back to Ames's office. The file was still sitting wide open on the floor, and she reached down to flip through it some more. Everything else looked normal, it was all junk she knew about already. She finally reached the back of the file and was about to snap it shut when something caught her eye. Written directly on the inner edge of the folder was a telephone number, written in such tiny print that she had almost missed it. _I guess his memory for numbers isn't as good as mine,_ she thought triumphantly. Maybe she would be able to get to the bottom of this. She neatly set the papers back into the file and settled it back on top of its stack, then turned to walk to the door. For the second time in the space of a minute, something caught her eye. She hadn't been in here much, so it must have been there the entire time, but she had never noticed it before. A fax machine was sitting on the other side of the room, surrounded by more stacks of files to keep it hidden. She wouldn't have spotted it if it hadn't been for the glare of light reflecting off the only visible corner of it. When she walked over to it, just one glance told her that it had been used recently. Ames had a habit of keeping his possessions clean, and the fax machine was spotless. If he hadn't been using it, he wouldn't have bothered keeping the dust off it that had settled onto many of the files she could see around her.

__

That number wasn't for a phone at all, it was a fax number, she realized suddenly, and her stomach knotted up tightly. Had Ames faxed Paige's blood test to someone? Why would he do that? And who would he send it to?

* * *

Ames wandered lazily around a tiny, musty old laundromat. He knew he looked suspicious without any clothes to wash, but it didn't matter. In this day and age, the other customers wouldn't ask any questions. The entire country had become a wasteland of suspicion and fear. Nobody was very quick to make new friends, and they were even slower to make new enemies. It was impossible to tell what you could be getting yourself into. Transgenics were still avoided if possible, and the cult was feared above all else. Seeing as how they all looked normal and it was harder to check for a scar than a barcode, he wasn't surprised that people were terrified, especially if you counted the fact that the Familiars' intentions were very clear. As cliché as it sounded, world domination was their ultimate goal. If he weren't one of them, he'd be afraid too.

"May I help you, sir?" inquired an incredibly deep, female voice in a manner of very forced politeness. He turned and forced a smile onto his face that was equally as false as her own, then replied, "Is your boss here?" It was a simple enough question; it wouldn't raise eyebrows but she would understand the meaning if she was a member of the cult.

"Right this way, please," she responded, turning and leading him to the back of the laundromat. He followed silently, sensing her enmity towards him without seeing the look on her face, which he was quite sure no longer held its phony smile. She opened a door for him at the back and gestured for him to enter, but she didn't come in. Instead, she shut the door and he heard her footsteps moving swiftly away. He turned to the man sitting behind the desk in front of him. He had only seen him twice before, first at his son's initiation, then shortly afterward when the Academy was closed down and moved. Both those times he had been honored to be in the presence of the most influential man of the cult, but now the novelty seemed to have worn off.

"Your assistant is a wonderfully warm woman," he commented dully, struggling to keep the edge off his sarcasm as he sat down.

The High Priest smiled indulgently, but it didn't stretch to his eyes. "We all know what you are, Ames, you can't blame us for being a little cold. Not only have we determined during your absence that you are from the family of the anti-key that we have been searching for throughout the entire history of our culture, but you also fathered a hybrid child that is an absolute abomination to us. I'm sure you knew that we found the documentation on that X5's pregnancy at Harbor Lights before you could get rid of it. I don't understand what you feel you have to gain through meeting with me. In the past, I may have done whatever I could to help you rectify your situation, but so far I have not found you worthy of my forgiveness. I understand that you sent a certain document to one of our people in the free clinic just across town. There are two things I want to know from you. One, how did you know who she was? And two, why did you send that document to her?"

"I take it you aren't aware of exactly what the document was?" Ames asked. If the High Priest had known, his demeanor would be quite different, he was sure.

"Would it make a difference?"

"I know it would. I knew Jennifer Palton at the Academy, and I recognized her one day as I was driving past the clinic. I knew she would be able to alert you to my current situation."

"And what situation is that?"

"You know as well as I do what the mother of my hybrid child is. I'm sure you are aware that she was the second key, Thula's younger sister. Although Sandeman rendered the pathogen in her blood harmless to humans, the original genetic code for the virus still remains in her DNA. While it's useless in her, I had reason to believe that it would be passed on in its full lethality to her offspring. A simple blood test on our daughter was enough to prove me right. While X5-358 cannot be used as a key, her children can."

The High Priest sat back, looking stunned at this revelation. "Are you sure about this?"

"I was positive before the child was born, but I worried that my own DNA would neutralize the virus and leave her as harmless as her mother, so I had a blood sample tested before I let you know my suspicions. Seeing as how the results were conclusive, I didn't see any reason to hold off telling you about our new hope."

The powerful man across from him smiled, his eyes shining with eagerness. "A new key. Of course, the transgenic blood also running through her veins is a disappointment, but as it can't be helped…." He stood up and walked around the desk so he could pace the room, his hands clasped behind his back. "Is the mother aware of what you have found out?"

"No, I was discreet. I do have some terms to set with you before you have access to the girl."

The priest stopped and turned, some of the delight fading from his face. "What kinds of terms?"

Ames held out his hands as he gave a little shrug. "I'm sure it's nothing you'll have a problem with, considering what I will be giving you in exchange. I request that I be reinstated as a Phalanx, the only one left as it turns out, and that my son be accepted back into the Academy without questions to resume his training. Any problems so far?"

He shook his head and returned to his chair to listen to Ames's final demand. "I also want it spread to the rest of our people that the rumor of my family being the anti-key is a lie, and I want it well known that it was I who 'discovered' the new key. Although I'm sure many will already know, my daughter's transgenic background isn't to be mentioned, and she will be raised as any other key has been. When she is old enough, we can pick up where we left off with the Coming. It's a whole new chance for us. The public believes that our goals died with Thula, and I see no reason to let them believe otherwise. There's no reason that things can't still work out for us. Are there any problems with this?"

Now the priest folded his hands on the desk and stared at them, lost in thought. "Am I to trust that you will ensure the mother won't be a problem for us?"

"Naturally. X5-358 won't even be a factor in this."

* * *

Max felt a great rush of relief when the workday was over and Alec no longer had an excuse to cling to her. Zack had thrown her some questioning looks when she and Alec came back from each set of runs only to rush right back out again. She couldn't do anything more than shrug helplessly at him, then follow as Alec dragged her off again. When they were done for the day, he had no choice but to leave with Jondy. She ignored the pleading gaze he sent back in her direction, then crossed over to her big brother. It was fairly obvious he wanted to talk to her.

"Why have you two been working so hard all day? Neither of you even took a break," he said as she opened her locker and pulled out the soda she had been storing there. She frowned as she discovered it had long since turned flat.

"Alec and Jondy were having some kind of misunderstanding, and Alec was using me as a barrier between the two of them. Believe me, I wasn't happy about it, especially since I know Normal won't pay me overtime, but I got enough in tips to make up for it. How has Jondy been all day?"

He shrugged and sat down next to her, pulling his jacket on. "Basically the same as always, except for some little talk she had with Brin. Brin wouldn't tell me what it was about, though. All she would say was that it was girl talk and I didn't need to know about it."

"Fair enough. Where's Brin?"

"She called from a payphone to tell me she got hung up in Sector 8 by a bunch of roadblocks, so she'll be late getting back. She said she'll meet me at Crash, though. Care to keep me company until she gets there?"

"Sure. I'll have to leave around five-thirty, though, I'm having dinner with Logan at six."

Zack nodded blankly, trying to hide his strong dislike of Logan. He'd been trying harder lately to at least hold back his hostility. Max was with Logan, and he'd learned from experience many times that separating them was next to impossible. His last attempt had ended with his own electrocution. The memory still left a bad taste in the back of his mouth. No matter how many times he told himself that it had all worked out for the best, it never failed to hurt him when he remembered that Max would rather kill him than let him hurt Logan.

Max didn't notice the bitter expression on her brother's face as they walked out the door and mounted their bikes, but she did notice how much colder he grew as they rode towards Crash. _I guess when I'm around him I'll have to pretend that I've never met anyone named Logan before. Either that, or he should just grow up._ She preferred the second option, but it wasn't likely that Zack was ever going to accept Logan as a part of their lives, so she would have to settle for Option A.

She paid for the drinks at Crash, ready to share her unwillingly earned extra cash. Zack was still looking sulky when she filled his glass up and sat down, so she slammed the pitcher of beer down on the table harder than she normally would have to at least make him look up. He glanced at her nervously, immediately detecting the change in her attitude. "So, have you talked to any of the others lately?" he asked, more for a change of subject than anything else.

"I talked to Cade the other day, he just kept going on and on about this new girlfriend he has. Doesn't he have a new one every other week?"

Zack smirked briefly before taking a drink. "Yeah, and he's just as excited about each one. Not too different from Gina."

"If you let them know where the other is, I'd bet you anything they'd be together. It might not last, but maybe between the two of them they'd manage to maintain a month-long relationship."

"Either that, or it would only last half as long and they'd break up in a few days." They both grinned, taking another drink at the same time. Max watched Zack glance around the bar without really seeing anything, and her mind started to run away with her again. It didn't happen very often that they were alone together, but when it did happen, she was strongly reminded of the way he had been when she first found him running around with the steel-heads. It wasn't so much the way he acted, but the feelings for her he had revealed at the time that made her think of it. Even outside of him trying to kiss her at the steel-heads' place, Alec had noticed that he seemed to care for her more than a brother should. She had thought nothing of it then, but that also meant that she didn't pay attention to how Zack acted around her. When she was alone with him now, she wondered if he was acting any different than he had then. If she hadn't detected his feelings then, she wouldn't be able to tell if he had them now. Most of the time she thought this was ridiculous, but whenever they were alone, she started to have her doubts. Sometimes she found herself imagining that he was looking at her with a softer expression than usual, only to take a second look and see that it was gone.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, studying her face carefully. She had gone so quiet that he really didn't know what to do. He had such a hard time reading her.

She smiled quickly and sat up straight, trying to push her thoughts away. She was being silly, Zack was head over heels in love with Brin, wasn't he? "No, I guess I'm just a little tired after running around so much today."

"I thought you didn't sleep?"

"I have to catch up sometime," she replied so quickly that she knew she was doing a pitiful job of concealing her discomfort. She glanced hurriedly at her watch and muttered, "I should probably go, Logan will be waiting." With that, she strode quickly out of the bar and ran her fingers through her long hair, trying to shake off the guilt she felt at leaving him alone to wait for Brin. _Stop being so damn stupid. Even if you don't feel like doing it now, you're going to go up to him tomorrow at work and apologize for being so rude._

Zack watched her until she had gone through the door, then turned back to his beer. Max never seemed to want to be alone with him for long, and he was pretty sure he knew why. Even though he felt that it was obvious, it probably wasn't as clear to her that he was over her. He was happy to be with Brin, even though he had to admit to himself that the only reason he had started to care so much for her was because she had become very similar to Max. He hadn't so much gotten over the feelings as projected them onto another person that seemed suitable enough. It probably wasn't fair to any of them, especially Brin, but he knew that in time he would get over it. Brin was wonderful, he couldn't have asked for anything better to happen to him. And when she finally walked through the door at Crash, he was honestly glad to see her.

* * *

Ben had sat in the church for most of the day, but it wasn't as good as most he went to. For one thing, it seemed that not many people were faithful churchgoers in this town, so he knew he wouldn't find anyone worthy of a chase, but he was so thrown off guard by seeing White that he hadn't been as focused as usual. When he finally decided that he couldn't take it anymore, he slid quietly out of the church without passing a single person on the way. _I guess I'll be moving on soon,_ he thought moodily, not looking forward to the idea of traveling so soon again. It hurt his head so much more to be on the move these days. He avoided Colorado at all costs, the drastic change in elevation was almost too much for his head to handle. He was so sensitive to everything these days, particularly changes in the weather. Lightning storms used to fascinate him, but now he found himself with an icepack on his head every time he saw signs of lightning in the distance. The thunder was a nightmare, but something about the energy in the air really seemed to set off his migraines. Perhaps it was the barometric pressure, he wasn't sure.

As he was walking down the sidewalk, a woman walked out of the front door of the free clinic and promptly ran right into him. She was a tall woman, only a few inches shorter than him, with chin-length black hair and sharp green and brown eyes, both of which glared at him furiously from the ground where she'd landed. "Why don't you watch where you're going?" she snapped fiercely. He reached down to help pull her up, but as soon as he had her left arm in his hand, she ripped it away with what he could have sworn was a hiss. "Don't touch me!"

He wasn't bothering with trying to help her up anymore, however, his eyes had landed on her left arm, where her vicious pull away from him had ripped her sleeve, baring the Caduceus scar on her forearm. "Well, that's interesting," he said softly, looking into her now nervous eyes. "You might want to leave before I decide to find out how interesting everyone else around here finds it." She scrambled to pull her sleeve together over the scar, stood up, and rushed off down the street. Ben stared after her, a light smile playing on his lips as he watched her run away from him. Yes, that was very interesting. Maybe this town wasn't completely empty of potential chases after all. A Familiar would be a lot of fun to hunt down.

* * *

A/N 2: Please review! 


	3. The Thrill of the Hunt

Author's Note: Sorry this was late, but the computer had to be fixed up and I wasn't told before it was taken away, otherwise I would have let everyone know.

Disclaimer: Kay and Paige are the only ones who are mine.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 2: The Thrill of the Hunt

"Anybody home?" Max called as she closed Logan's front door behind her. The familiar sound of his fingers tapping away on his keyboard greeted her ears and she smiled, almost sure that he hadn't heard her call out. Along with some of his other projects, he was extremely focused on helping the police (an entirely new concept for him) find and expose as many remaining cult members as he could. When he was working on that particular project, he wasn't even aware of anyone else around him. When she turned the corner and entered the living room, however, something on his face told her that he was working on something very serious. He glanced up when she knocked gently on the wall of the living room, but the focused expression never left his face.

"What are you working on?"

He sighed and sat back, scribbling something down on the notepad next to him. When she took a second look at the paper, she saw that he had written down a series of several addresses with phone numbers next to them. When he noticed her looking, he ripped it off the pad and started pointing to the different addresses as he spoke. "This is an elementary school in Kalispell, Montana. About a month ago their Little League baseball team won the state championship with flying colors. Apparently their pitcher, the youngest player on the team, is some sort of incredible sports prodigy. He's only seven years old and he can throw a pitch that would make a national level pitcher jealous. The only problem is that they never actually say the kid's name A quote from the local newspaper mentions that they couldn't get a proud quote from his father because he was too busy working at a feed mill just outside of town. When I checked out the employee list, the man I'm guessing to be his father was listed only as Mr. Bransen, no first name, and he works the regular eight-hour shift you would expect. But I also discovered his name on the employee lists of AT&T, where he's a telemarketer for five hours, and also at the local law office where he's a typical paper pusher for six hours. So, since no one by the name of Bransen is on the list for the bus route, his schedule appears to work something like this: he drops his son off at school, starts working at the feed mill at eight o'clock, gets off at four, takes his kid home, works at AT&T from six to eleven, then I'm assuming he goes home and sleeps for a couple hours, because he starts working at the law office at one o'clock in the morning and gets off at seven, giving him just enough time to make it home, eat breakfast, maybe take a really fast shower, and take his kid to school to start the whole day over. Sounds like a bit of a grueling schedule, doesn't it?"

"What's the last address?"

"It might not be right, but I think it's where he lives. He has a different address listed at each work site, but one of them is a house just outside of town that is also listed by the local real estate agency as for sale, and another is an apartment that I've checked into which turns out to be currently unoccupied as well. The only thing all three work sites have in common is a cell phone number that he gave them, and I've tracked down where the majority of his calls have been made from. It turns out many are from the other address that he gave out, which is nearly a half hour out of town. Even though the phone number for the house is unlisted, I haven't been able to find anything that says the house is for sale or unfit to live in, so I'm fairly sure it's where he's really living."

Max studied the addresses with her head tipped to the side. "Wow, three different jobs, three different addresses, two of which are fake, and he's not releasing his first name anywhere. Plus his schedule is ridiculously busy and his son is some kind of prodigy. Sounds a little suspicious to me."

"Yeah, it was actually the kid who drew my attention to this, because he seems to fit the profile of a Familiar child, but I think you'll be surprised by what I found." He leaned forward and clicked on something on the bottom of his screen. In the next second, a picture popped up of what was obviously a Little League team that had been scanned from a newspaper. Her eyes flashed over the kids' faces, then suddenly her eyes widened as they landed on the smallest boy in the photo, standing in the front row on the far right. "Oh my God, it's Ray!"

* * *

Ben had been following the Familiar woman all day, making sure to keep enough of a distance so that she wouldn't be suspicious. She had gone to what he guessed to be her home, but only to change into a businesslike outfit and walk straight to a laundromat. He didn't like the thought of going in there, it was virtually empty and he'd be too easy to see, but his curiosity got the best of him. Once his target had walked into the back, he opened the door, cringing at the bell that jingled merrily above his head to announce his arrival. No one came out of the back, though, so he breathed a sigh of relief and crept as close to the door to the back as he dared. After all, he would need time to get out if they came out suddenly.

"Fen'os tol," came the woman's voice, completely void of all emotion.

"Fen'os tol." The reply was male, but Ben didn't recognize it. "Is the information you were sent correct?"

"Yes, sir, the child is everything he said she was. Is he in charge of removing her from the mother?"

The man in the room hesitated slightly, and then said, "He believes he is, but I have another plan. That's why I called you here. He told me that he's planning on taking the child today, and I want you to be there. I'll be sending a team of our people with you. They will be in charge of setting explosives around the house, while you will have to remove the child before they are detonated. I believe he will kill the mother, so I want you to be removing the child at the same time she is killed. With any luck, his house will blow up before he realizes that the baby is gone."

"Not to sound insubordinate, sir, but so many things could go wrong with that plan. What if they are in the same room as the girl? I won't be able to take her right under their noses."

"The team is very creative, they will take care of any surprises that come up. Your only concern is the girl. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir. Can I be of any other service to you?"

Silence dominated for a few moments, then the man asked, "How long will it be before the girl has enough blood in her body for our purposes?"

"She would probably have enough right now, but we'd have to drain her dry. Is that what you want?"

"It would save us the time of killing her later. You know as well as I do what she is, and I won't tolerate her kind with our people. Once everything is said and done, she'd be useless anyway."

As they started their obligatory "Fen'os tol" farewells, Ben reached up and removed the bell from above the door and left, leaving the bell on the sidewalk. He stepped into an alley next to the building and waited for the woman to come out. He hadn't understood a word of what was said, the only thing he knew was that he would be dealing with several Familiars. _Who says I can't pick them off one by one?_

* * *

Max couldn't take her eyes off the Little League photograph. The article had mentioned his father, so that meant that Ames White was alive. "How could they be alive? You told me that Ray was gone when you got back to your house after the big fight, so you assumed he somehow found a way there. How could a kid his age survive something like that?"

"Maybe White saw him and got him out of danger. You told me that Ray was the only important thing to White at that point, so it's not like he had a reason to stick around once he got his hands on him. It doesn't really surprise me that he's alive, the bad ones always manage to get away, I'm just shocked that he's in hiding. He never really seemed the type, did he?"

Her eyes flicked down to the list of addresses, three of which were White's jobs. "And why is he working so hard? If it's just him and Ray, why does he need the money? And another thing I don't get about this is he was so set and determined to get Ray, but now that he has him he's hardly spending any time with him. How could he with that schedule? Who's taking care of Ray? I know he's a pretty tough little kid and all that, but I wouldn't leave him alone for so long."

"For all we know, he's hiring a babysitter, but that's not the important thing. It's your first question that concerns me, why is he working so hard? He must have an account somewhere, maybe I'll see what he's been buying lately. Of course, all three jobs are minimum wage, so maybe he just needs the cash to keep them afloat. I'm sure he has bills to pay."

"I'm tempted to send his address to his cult buddies and drive over there so I can watch them rip him to pieces. It would be the only good thing I ever got out of him."

Logan raised an eyebrow at her sudden vehemence. "Are you forgetting that he's the one who made it possible for you to escape at the big fight? You know, I never asked before, but why did he even bother to take you to the stadium? Couldn't he have taken your blood back at your cell and neutralized Thula's blood without you there?"

"Yeah, but he wanted me there to lure Kay out. He wanted revenge on her for telling him Ray had died." She stopped abruptly, she hadn't even said Kay's name since that day. It was easier to push her sister out of her mind.

Logan noticed the immediate change in Max's behavior. "Is she still that painful to think about? I would think that after all this time that you would have forgiven her for everything. After all, seeing as how White's alive, we have to assume she's dead."

That had never occurred to Max before. It was true, her sister hadn't been active at all since the fight. It was like she'd disappeared off the face of the planet. "Why would you assume she's dead because of that? The last time I saw her, she was walking after Thula."

"I know I never mentioned this to you, but surveillance of the fight showed White heading to the same room that I know Kay and Thula were in. Since Thula is dead, Kay hasn't been heard from, and White's alive, I can't come up with any other possibilities. You said yourself that White wanted revenge, so maybe he got it."

Max crossed her arms, thinking back to that day. "You know, I don't really understand why she was going after Thula in the first place."

"She never told you?"

Max looked at him curiously. "Told me what?"

Logan couldn't believe she didn't know anything about this. "Sandeman made her to fight Thula. He knew someone would need to be strong enough to take her out, so that's where Kay came in. That's why she was so much stronger than the rest of you. The thing that really surprised me was that she was actually the second key, but genetically enhanced on top of it. She's Thula's younger sister."

If Max had been expecting to hear anything, it wasn't that. "So she's part Familiar? When did she find that out?"

"The day that Ben died, I'm assuming. Back when we thought she was dead too. Don't get bitter about it now, that was months ago. You know, if Kay was somehow alive and I had to guess what happened, I'd say that she hightailed it out of here as soon as Thula was dead. It's not like she was welcome anywhere around here. For all we know, she could be living a completely different life right now."

* * *

Kay sat at the kitchen table, nibbling without much interest on a grilled cheese sandwich. She knew she had to eat, but her mind was so preoccupied that food was the last thing she was thinking about. Although she wanted to confront Ames, she didn't want to do it when Ray was around, but it had been a long time since she had been alone in the house with Ames. Whenever Ray was at school, Ames was at work, and they both came home at the same time. Still, she wanted to hear his explanation for what was going on. She didn't know why he had bothered having their daughter's blood tested. They already knew the facts; Paige was mostly Familiar with some genetic engineering in her background. What else did he need to know?

Suddenly, she heard the familiar sound of Ames's car pulling into the driveway. She glanced at the clock in surprise. What was he doing home so early? Hurrying to the window, she peered out and watched him climb out of the car. For some reason, it looked like he slipped something into his pocket before closing the car door. Focusing her eyes on his pocket, she easily spotted the outline of a syringe. Tension started to creep through her stomach, this wasn't good. The shape of the syringe was long, so if she had to guess, she'd say that there was already something in it. _Grab Paige and get out of the house,_ the voice piped up suddenly, now sounding much more worried than amused. _But what if I'm being stupid and I just guessed wrong at what was in his pocket?_ she argued back. _Well, wouldn't you rather be safe than sorry?_ it replied, starting to sound annoyed. Without wasting another second, Kay dashed back into Paige's room and scooped her out of the crib. "Shhhh, honey, you have to be really quiet right now," she murmured softly, rocking Paige gently as she headed for the window. Just before she reached it, something inside her made her freeze. Hairs stood up rigidly on the back of her neck, practically screaming that something wasn't right.

The barely audible _snap_ of a twig breaking drew her attention. Someone was outside, coming towards the house from behind. She distantly heard Ames's footsteps on the porch, so who else was outside? Her eyes stared out into the trees, but she couldn't see anything. Just as the front door opened, she heard another _snap_ that indicated that the stranger was moving around the side of the house now. She looked out at the woods again, struggling to see any signs of movement, but once she was convinced that nothing was out there, she pushed the window open and slid out, landing easily on her feet. She reached up and grabbed the window, pulling it down as far she could before the space between the window and the sill was too small for her hand to fit in. Occasionally she could still hear the snapping of twigs, now on both sides of the house. Listening intently as she crept into the trees, she finally decided there were approximately three or four people in the woods with her, but they all seemed to be going towards the house and hadn't noticed her. If they had, she would take care of it.

* * *

"You know," Max began, pacing around in the living room as Logan continued to tap away on his computer, struggling to find out anything else he could about White, "maybe I should go over there and see if I can find out what happened with Kay. I know we weren't on the best terms then, but it's pretty obvious that without her, we wouldn't be in the position we're in. She got rid of Thula, so now we're more accepted. Besides, she's still family. I have to find out what happened to her."

Logan sat back, staring at his computer with confusion etched all over his face. "How fast can you get over there?"

"Why?"

"Well, I don't know what White's up to, but according to this bank statement, he purchased something very expensive and his check was written out to Lethil & Prowdovet."

"What's that?"

"It's a company that specializes in anything to do with warfare, whether it's weaponry, biological, or chemical. I'm not sure what he bought, but if he bought it from these people, it's nothing good. Something that doesn't really surprise me is that the president of the company was discovered as a Familiar two months ago. Perhaps the cult managed to make sure his successor was another one of their people. Either way, I don't like the thought of any of their products ending up in White's hands."

Max pulled the keys to her motorcycle out of her pocket. "I'll be there before those people can cash their check."

* * *

Ames tore angrily through the house for at least the seventh time. Where had she gone? Why, of all days, did she pick today to run away with Paige? In his anger, he stormed into his office and kicked over the nearest stack of files. His eyes flew around the room, looking for anything else that would be safe to destroy. That was when his eyes landed on Paige's file across the room. Because he went through it so often, it was usually more disheveled than the rest of his files, but for some reason it looked meticulously put back together. Sure enough, when he picked it up and flipped through it, he noticed that the paper with Paige's birthday on it had somehow migrated from the top of the file to the middle. "That bitch, why did she have to get curious now?" he growled out loud, throwing the file down and causing papers to fly all over the place. How long ago had she discovered the blood test results? Did she even know what they meant? She must have, otherwise she wouldn't have run off.

A light _creak_ echoed throughout the house, and Ames turned and started slipping through the house silently, heading for Kay's room. That stupid floorboard right next to Paige's crib always creaked when someone went to look at her. He stopped just outside the door, listening silently as someone moved around the room. Had Kay come back for something?

Finally, he poked his head around the doorframe and peeked inside, stunned to see the Familiar from the free clinic digging through Kay's drawers, apparently checking for anything missing. "What are you doing here?" he snapped, stepping into the room and glaring at her furiously.

Jennifer jumped, then turned to him with a cold look on her face. "I was sent to make sure you took care of everything like you promised, but I don't see any sign of that girl anywhere. Did you tip off the mother and allow her to go into hiding?"

"Of course not. This is my opportunity to rejoin my people, why would I do something to jeopardize that?"

"I wouldn't know, I don't know what goes through your traitorous mind. If you have any idea where she could have gone, it would be best to speak up now."

He rolled his eyes. "The only place she ever had friends was in Seattle, but I doubt she would go there. She's terrified of them finding out she has a child with me. As far as I know, she doesn't have anywhere else to go."

"For your sake, you'd better not be lying. I suggest you wait here to see if she comes back for anything. I'm sure the High Priest will send out a team to search the surrounding area, and until he has the girl in his hands, I doubt he'll want you involved in any of our operations at all." With that said, she went back through the window and headed for the woods. Ames stormed into the kitchen, his eyes landing on a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich. How had he not noticed that before? Kay was the type to eat lunch in the middle of the afternoon, sometimes close enough to supper to spoil her meal. It had always been a source of irritation for him. Unless she had eaten lunch early, this meant that it wasn't that long ago when she left. _Screw them, I'm going to look for her myself._

Ben sat in the trees and watched as White came out the front door, cracking his knuckles angrily. _I wonder what's got him so riled up?_ he thought with some amusement. The woman he'd been following had been joined by three other familiars, all of whom were now watching White intently. _If what I heard at the laundromat is anything to go by, they're planning to kill him._ That didn't bother him, but he'd rather have the chance to do it himself. If all went according to plan, he'd have five new people to add to his record, the first Familiars he had ever had the pleasure to kill. It would be challenging, but he was sure he was up to it. His best shot would be to wait for when they came back, though. Then maybe he could take care of them all while they were inside the house. He fingered the handgun at his side. He wouldn't shoot to kill, just to injure. He wanted the pleasure of killing them with his bare hands. The funny thing was, despite his concentration on every sound that came out of the woods, he never noticed the two people he hadn't counted on sneaking through the trees not even fifty feet behind him.

Kay had circled the house a few times, picking out the three familiars that were watching the house. She'd also overheard Ames arguing with a woman in the house, but now they had both left it empty. With that woman going through the trees to the highway where she'd parked, and the three other familiars following Ames, there was nothing to stop her from going back inside and grabbing some of Paige's things. After all, if she was going on the run, she would at least need some diapers. She waited until Ames had disappeared in the trees just to the right of their driveway on the opposite side from her with the three familiars trailing along behind him. Just as she turned to make her way to the back of the house to sneak into her room, she saw another head just at the very edge of her front yard, barely visible with the brush that was surrounding it. _Maybe they decided to keep someone watching the house until I come back._ At any rate, she wouldn't be able to get back into the house without him at least hearing her. Restraining a groan of frustration, she gently lowered herself down to the ground to wait for him to move on.

* * *

Max had been gunning her motorcycle the entire way, and she was pretty happy with the time she was making. She could stay on the interstate most of the time. She found it interesting that not a single cop had tried to stop her from racing down the road at top speed, but that was probably why most vehicle accidents happened on the interstate these days. The extremely understaffed law enforcement in this country had decided to stick to the big cites, leaving rural areas and the major roads to fend for themselves. She wasn't the only one flying at breakneck speed down the road, so it was easier to blend in. The sun still had plenty of time to set by the time she reached a small town called Lakeside, despite leaving Seattle at five-thirty.

She started winding her way through the streets, finally leaving out the north side of town. When she passed by the school, she stared at it curiously. Why hadn't White sent his kid here? Just before reaching a long, winding driveway with White's address posted on the red sign next to it and a yellow sign reading DEAD END, she saw a green sign that informed her that the next town, Somers, was only two miles away. Why in the world was White sending Ray to school in Kalispell when there were two towns so nearby? He was going a half hour out of his way to take the kid to school. Wouldn't it have been easier to have Ray go to school in Lakeside so that the bus could pick him up? Then he would have been able to take a job anywhere he wanted instead of having to keep it close to Ray's school so he could take him there and back home. _I will never understand how these people's minds work,_ she thought incredulously.

Instead of taking her motorcycle all the way up to the house, she set it in the brush next to the ditch and covered it up completely, then started the long walk down the driveway. It was a ridiculously long walk, but just as she was thinking about whether or not to start jogging so she could get there faster, she heard the unmistakable sounds of someone walking through the woods. Stepping quickly behind a tree, she snuck a quick look around it to the area on the other side of the driveway. Even though he didn't appear to have seen her, White was carefully making his way through the trees at least a hundred yards away from her, heading in the opposite direction. What was he looking for? What surprised her more was when she saw the distinctive shapes of three more people sneaking along behind him, apparently without his knowledge. _What in the world have I walked in on here?_ When they were a safe enough distance away, she stepped back out onto the driveway and continued on to the house. It was probably a better idea to just wait for him there.

Kay and Ben both looked up at the exact same moment when Max came into their view. Ben simply stared at her for a minute as she passed by him and walked up to the house, going through the door that White had left open and disappearing inside. He toyed with the idea of going in there by her and revealing himself to her, but the desire to have his fun with the Familiars overrode it. If she was still around after that, he would talk to her. Although he enjoyed his lifestyle to its fullest extent, he knew it was wrong of him to let her believe that she had killed her own brother. Of course, she had been around Zack and Brin for so long that he wondered if she didn't already know. Either way, she still thought he was dead, just as Zack and Brin did. She had caused a problem for him now, though. He couldn't exactly kill the Familiars in front of her, so now he had no choice but to follow them into the woods. Making sure Max couldn't see him, he darted across the driveway and started soundlessly following the search party in the forest.

Even though a tree was blocking her view of him as he crossed the driveway, Kay was pretty sure that the person who'd been watching the house had moved on. She could see his shadow moving through the trees, slowly growing smaller as he followed the others. With a sigh of relief, she climbed back to her feet and headed back for the house. She would have to be more careful now that Max was inside, but she was still determined to get some of Paige's things, maybe even steal some money if she could find it.

Making a quick decision that it probably wasn't a good idea to take Paige inside with her, Kay settled her now sleeping daughter in a dip between two roots of a tree on the edge of the yard, making sure that the blanket protected Paige from the roughness of the bark. The woman who had argued with Ames earlier had left the bedroom window wide open, so she stole a look over the sill to make sure Max wasn't there. When she was satisfied that the coast was clear, she easily popped up through the window and started grabbing what she needed. She made sure to avoid the crib, the last thing she needed was for that creaky floorboard to alert Max of her presence. She shoved the small pile of things she wanted to take under the window. They would just slow her down while she was sneaking around looking for the money.

Listening to the sounds of Max walking around in the kitchen, Kay stepped into the hallway and headed for Ames's room. If she was lucky, he had set his wallet down while he was searching for her. Sure enough, it was sitting on the bedside stand next to his cell phone. She picked it up and started flipping through it, pleased to see that he must have just gone to the bank, for there was well over two hundred dollars in front of her. _I'm glad he has all those ridiculous jobs, even if it is just so he can avoid being around me._ She shoved the money into her pocket, then froze when she heard light footsteps coming down the hall. Max was coming! Looking around the room wildly, she finally threw herself down and slid under the bed. It would have been impossible for her to get out the window before Max reached her, and the closet was just too obvious.

Max's feet strode into view, drifting meaninglessly around the room as Max explored carelessly. Suddenly, the sound of the front door opening reached both of their ears. Max turned and slipped out of the room, giving Kay time to pull herself out from under the bed and sneak back into her own room. Just as she reached the window and glanced out to check on Paige, her breath caught in her throat. Even from here she could tell that the space between the roots was completely empty. Where was Paige?

* * *

Author's Note: Please review! 


	4. On With The Chase

Disclaimer: Kay, Paige, and Jennifer are mine, but everybody else isn't.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 3: On With The Chase

Jennifer Palton couldn't believe what she'd been reduced to. She had been in the top of her class at Brookridge Academy, excelled in every medical class she enrolled herself in, was the most respected doctor at the free clinic, and now look what she was: a babysitter. Why, of all people, had Ames White decided to send a copy of the blood test results of his abominable hybrid daughter to her? Now she was in this up to her neck, which was precisely where she didn't want to be. She had gone back to the highway to call the High Priest because it was the only way she could get reception on her cell phone; the woods and White's house left her without service. On the High Priest's instructions, she went into Lakeside and bought enough supplies to take care of the baby until they had chosen the exact time they wanted to reattempt releasing the Coming. She had hoped that by the time she got back, the others would have found the X5 in the woods and have the child in their custody, but no such luck. Although she had been lucky enough to notice the sleeping baby nestled in between the roots of a tree on the edge of White's property, she knew perfectly well that the mother had left the child there. She assumed the X5 was in the house, so now she was wasting no time as she ran back towards her car. Although she was confident with her abilities, she had no interest in tangling with this child's mother.

In her haste to return to the highway without being tracked, she had started zigzagging wildly through the trees, but now she was sure that she had gone too far to the right. In fact, when she stopped to take a look around, she realized that she could see the driveway leading up to the house. That meant that she was at a nearly perfect 90-degree angle from the highway. She groaned angrily as the baby started to wriggle in her arms, making soft whining noises to make it clear that she knew she wasn't in her mother's arms. "Just shut up and I'll be able to drug you into a nice comfortable sleep so you won't care if I don't like you," she snapped, realizing too late that she had been a bit too harsh. With all the breath that her tiny little lungs had pulled in, Paige began to wail at the top of her lungs. The sound echoed abysmally through the forest, clearly audible for at least a quarter of a mile. Jennifer nearly dropped the girl in her shock, then recovered herself and dropped all pretense of hiding. Without further ado, she took off at top speed through the woods, crashing loudly through underbrush as she went. She knew she had no means to calm the girl down, so she was nothing more than a siren that would eventually lead everyone in the surrounding area right to her.

Ames's head whipped around at the sound of his daughter's cry. He didn't hesitate for even a millisecond, he was racing through the trees as fast as his powerful legs could carry him. In the midst of the racket he was making on his own, he never noticed the four people following along at breakneck speed behind him, struggling to keep up.

The three familiars were struggling to keep up with Ames, who was much faster than any of them would have ever given him credit for, but Ben was having no problem whatsoever. X5s were easily faster than the Familiars, and Ben was planning on beating all of them to the source of that horrendous noise. Was that really a baby? _It must be, that's what the man in the laundromat wanted. It appears White wants that kid._ Well, if White wanted it, then he didn't want him to have it. Besides, he could use the kid later to lure them all to him and massacre them all like he'd planned.

* * *

Max had run to the front door after hearing it open, but was angry with herself when she realized that she must not have shut it all the way and the wind had opened it. Just as she went to shut it, she heard the unmistakable shriek of an infant. _Why is there a baby out here?_ She stepped out onto the porch to see where it was, but instead the sight of White crashing through the woods with four men behind him greeted her. She thought she recognized one of the men, but he had passed through the woods and around the corner of the house before she could get a good look at him. When she ran around the side of the house to take a better look, he had already moved well ahead of even White and was too far away for her to see clearly. What she did see though was the frame of a woman pass through the back yard and into the trees, joining the chase. She only caught a glimpse of long blonde hair, then the woman was also too far ahead to see. _Well, I'm not just going to sit around and wait for them all to get that baby, I'm going to see what this is about. _

Kay had no idea what was going on, but she was sure that none of this boded well for her daughter. _I just don't get it, I thought Ames had separated himself from the cult. Why are they trying to take Paige?_ She couldn't believe what a fiasco today had been so far. Although her life here hadn't exactly been what she'd call normal, it certainly wasn't this odd. Compared to this, her life here had been relatively calm. She passed the strange Familiars easily, so the only people left that she could see in front of her were Ames, a man who was moving too quickly to see, and a woman that she was sure was holding Paige. Somewhere behind her she was also sure Max was now following them. Could this day possibly get any stranger?

Just as she pulled even with Ames, he flung out an arm and struck her in the face with the back of his fist. It startled her, but it didn't prevent her from throwing her weight into his side and knocking him into a tree. They were so close to the highway now that she could hear the traffic clearly. Paige was still a good distance ahead of her, so how would she make it there in time? She heard Ames steady himself on his feet and begin running again, but she knew he would never catch up. If she didn't have time to reach Paige's captor, she knew he sure didn't.

Ames couldn't have been more stunned when he started running again and realized that Max was running a few feet ahead of him. _What the hell is 452 doing here?_ he wondered incredulously. How had this plan gone so wrong? All he was supposed to do was kill Kay and take Paige to the Conclave, so what were all these people doing here? He didn't buy Jennifer's excuse of the High Priest wanting to make sure he got the job done. If that's what Jennifer was for, why were the other Familiars here? From what he could tell, it appeared that someone else had a very different plan to get Paige back. Now the question was had there been a role for him in this plan? And that still didn't explain was 452 was doing here. He hurled his body forward, knocking Max straight to the ground. She grunted as his weight landed on top of her and her body was driven into the hard dirt, but it didn't stun her for long. She threw back an elbow and crunched him squarely on the nose. That blow must have broken his nose, unless his cartilage was made of steel. He rolled away from her and jumped to his feet, fully prepared to take off after the others again.

Max pushed herself up to her feet and lunged forward to tackle him around the legs before he could get too far ahead again. She flipped him over onto his back, glowering down into his bloody face. "What the hell is going on here?"

He snapped his neck forward, throwing his forehead against hers. She yelped and pulled back her head, but slammed her fist into his face angrily. It didn't wipe the fuming look from his eyes. "It's none of your business. You have no right to be here." With that, he shoved her off and got back to his feet, looking around for the others. His eyes narrowed furiously when he saw that Jennifer had reached the highway.

Ben had just barely reached Jennifer when she jumped directly over her car and leapt into the driver's seat, still clutching the screaming baby tightly to her chest. She quickly pressed the button to lock her doors, but Ben pitched his elbow into the window and sent glass flying all through the car. He had just forced his torso through the broken window when she stepped on the accelerator and the car squealed away from the side of the road. With her left arm around the baby and also gripping the steering wheel, her only option remaining was to hit every part of Ben she could reach with her right hand. It didn't drive him out though, instead he grabbed her hair and used it as leverage to drag himself the rest of the way into the car. She screamed as he jerked her head to the side and the car began to swerve wildly over the road. Horns honked from every direction, but Ben never released her head. When the car was back in the correct lane, he gave her head a sharp twist that resulted in a loud _crack_. He hit the button for the cruise control before the dead weight of her foot slipped off the accelerator.

Removing the baby from her arms while trying to shove the dead woman into the back seat, while at the same time trying to keep the vehicle driving straight, wasn't exactly a simple task. By the time Jennifer's body was slumped awkwardly in the back and Ben had pulled himself into the driver's seat, the baby was in complete hysterics. With the cruise control set and his knee keeping the steering wheel straight, he picked up the screaming baby and tried to nestle her in the crook of his arm. Although it had seemed like a good idea at the time, he now wasn't sure what he was going to do with the kid in the meantime. He had no clue how to take care of a baby, and at the moment the little girl looked like she would be a handful for him. "Come on, stop crying. It's not like it's you I want to kill, anyways. After I've taken care of all those people, I'll probably just drop you off outside an orphanage or something," he grumbled irritably. Suddenly, a very foul smell reached his nostrils. _Oh great, just what I need. Maybe this wasn't such a stellar idea after all._ He turned to glance into the back, relieved that there was at least a package of diapers back there along with some baby wipes. He looked dubiously down at Paige, who was screaming as loudly as her tiny vocal cords would allow. _Boy am I not looking forward to this._

* * *

Brin's day had felt so horrendously long that she wasn't sure she'd ever been happier to see Zack's smiling face when she entered Crash. Although she had the sense that he'd been thinking about something serious before she came in, she didn't ask him about it. It was very rare that she ever questioned him about anything that was troubling him. With Zack, it was just easier to leave things alone. They had spent the entire evening just hanging out, but just before they actually left Crash, Zack asked, "I know you don't want to tell me, but what did Jondy want to talk to you about earlier? Max was curious too, I guess Alec's been acting weird lately." 

"Is that new?" she joked, but she didn't actually bother to answer the question. The truth was that Jondy hadn't actually told her anything, but it was obvious that she'd been planning to. Every time it seemed to be on the tip of her tongue, doubt would rise up in her eyes and it was apparent that she'd changed her mind and didn't want to say anything. Their conversation hadn't been much more than average small talk, but Brin knew Jondy had something big on her mind.

They had nearly reached their apartment when Brin's pager went off. When she looked down at it, she saw that it was Alec's cell phone. _Why would he be calling me?_ She didn't say anything to Zack, but when he headed into the bathroom to take a shower, she picked up the phone and dialed Alec's number. It didn't get to ring one full time, he answered it before it had the chance. "Brin?"

"Yeah, it's me. Why are you calling me, and why did you want me to call you on your cell phone?"

He sounded really uncomfortable when he replied, "Well, Jondy's been acting really strange tonight, I think something's wrong. I didn't want her to know I called you, so I used my cell phone to page you and turned it to vibrate so she wouldn't hear it when you called me back. She's in the bathroom right now, crying her eyes out. Did she say anything to you today?"

"No, but I'll be right over. I got the feeling earlier that she was planning on telling me something, but she never got around to it. Just give me ten minutes." She hung up the phone and walked into the bathroom. Even though Zack was on the other side of the curtain, he knew she had come in. "I've got to go out for a while, but I'll be back in a little bit, ok?"

"Where are you going?"

"I'll tell you later." She didn't want to say a word to him until she found out what this was all about.

It was actually a quick drive over to Alec and Jondy's apartment, but Brin was so anxious to get there that she found herself swearing at every slow driver in her path. As soon as she had pulled up outside their building, she ran inside and charged up the stairs, not even bothering to use the elevator. Before she even had the chance to knock on the door, Alec had opened it and was ushering her inside. "You know, I think I'll leave you two alone. This will probably require some girl time, right?"

Brin glanced towards the bathroom, where she could hear Jondy's stifled sobs. "Yeah, more than likely. I'll call you and let you know when it's safe to come back." He nodded and headed out the door, leaving her to close it. Taking a deep breath, she walked into the bathroom and laid a hand on Jondy's shoulder. "Hey, little sister, what's going on?"

Jondy roughly wiped the tears off her face, staring determinedly at the edge of the sink. "Nothing, I'm fine."

"Sure, and Normal is going to double all our wages tomorrow. I know you wanted to tell me earlier, but I'm here now, so what's up?"

Jondy fidgeted nervously with her fingers and sat down on the rim of the bathtub. "I was going to say something to you before, but then I saw Alec leaving with Max again and I thought maybe I should talk to him first. Then I overheard him talking to Max, and now I really don't know what to do."

Brin sat down Indian-style on the floor in front of her sister. "What were they talking about? Alec isn't seeing someone behind your back, is he?"

"No, he's not, even though it doesn't surprise me that that's the first conclusion you jumped to. You and Zack never really did like Alec. That's not the point though. He knew I was due for another heat cycle, so he was getting ready to go out and buy a whole ton of protection like usual, but I told him not to do it. I guess I should have explained myself better, because he took that to mean that I wanted to have a baby, and he told Max that was the last thing he wanted right now."

"And this upsets you because…?"

Jondy threw up her hands hopelessly, letting her tears fall freely again. "Because the reason I told him not to buy protection is because I'm already pregnant!"

Brin's mouth dropped open in shock. That was the last thing she had expected to hear. "You're pregnant? When did you find out?"

Jondy wiped uselessly at her face again, struggling to take a deep breath and calm herself down. "I've been feeling off lately. It wasn't anything serious, not like morning sickness or anything, but I really haven't felt like myself. I don't think I can really explain it, but I went into the pharmacy the other day to get tryptophan and I saw the shelf with the pregnancy tests on it. I didn't really believe at the time that I was pregnant, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to check. I guess we would have found out anyway when I didn't come into heat, but now I don't know what to do. It's not like I can keep it from him for long, the most time I can get away with is about two weeks because if I keep saying my cycle's just running late then he'll get suspicious. I'm terrible when it comes to lying to him."

"Frankly, I think you should just tell him right away. He may not be thrilled about it at first, but it's not like there's much he can do. Jondy, he loves you, even I know that, even _Zack_ knows that. Just you wait and see, before too long he'll be really excited."

"Do you really think so? I wasn't even very happy when I first found out. I really didn't think I could get pregnant outside of my heat cycle, and I'm sure I haven't been pregnant that long. It just came as such a shock. I'm not sure I'm ready for this."

Brin clucked her tongue sympathetically. She had no idea what she'd do if she got pregnant. Of course, her situation was different. Zack loved kids, he'd be ecstatic to have one of his own. Naturally he would go through the this-might-not-be-a-good-idea-because-if-we-make-enemies-it-will-make-it-that-much-harder-to-hide phase, but he'd get over it. They didn't have nearly as much to run from anymore, just the occasional transgenic-hater and people who wanted to get their hands on their DNA. Other than that, they were pretty safe. The cult wasn't even an issue anymore.

* * *

Kay's heart nearly stopped when she saw Jennifer's car pull away from the side of the road with that man's legs sticking out of the window. Her eyes automatically caught the license plate number, but she didn't think it would be helpful. Whichever one of them managed to take control of the car, she doubted they would hold onto it for very long. It was too easy to track. She whipped around when she heard one of the familiars finally come out of the trees. In her desperation to make it to the car before it could get away, she had forgotten they were back there. By the time she had gathered her wits about her again, all three of them had set themselves into fighting stances. "Do you really want to do this right in the view of the highway?" she asked sweetly, gesturing to the many vehicles driving by. Even though the drivers weren't paying attention to them now, she was pretty sure they would notice if a fight started on the side of the road, especially with the way all of them knew how to fight. 

One of the men pulled out a gun and aimed it directly at her forehead. Before he could pull the trigger, she flashed to the side and ran up onto the road. All three hurried after her, forgetting about the gun. She waited in the middle of the road for the first one to catch up to her, then grabbed him before he could hit her and threw him into an oncoming truck. She heard the telltale _crunch_ of several of his ribs breaking and the squeals of the truck's tires as the driver tried to stop and see if he was all right. Just as he brought the truck to a halt and jumped out to see, the familiar leapt back to his feet and charged at her. She kicked out hard and caught him in the chest, sending him straight back out into the middle of traffic. The driver only stared at them both in shock. "Oh my God, what are you? Transgenics or cult psychos?" Before anyone could answer, he had jumped back in his truck and was taking off again. Kay really didn't want to battle with them right here, but they seemed determined to have it out with her. _If it's a fight they want, it's a fight they'll get._

As the other two familiars approached her, Kay leapt into the air as high as she could to avoid them and landed easily in the bed of a truck passing by heading south. She flicked them off as they tried to run after her, then turned to face the driver, who was staring out the back window at her in alarm. To her surprise, he flipped open the switch so she could open the back window and crawl through into the cab of the truck. Once she was sitting next to him, she saw that he was an extremely good-looking, muscular man with creamy, chocolate-colored skin and a shaved head. "I didn't know any of your people were out in this area. Don't most of you like to stick pretty close to the west coast?"

She shrugged nonchalantly, unsure if she could let go and trust him or not. "Most of us, but that's why I'm here. Just so we understand each other, you know I'm a transgenic and you don't have a problem with it?"

"Not at all, and yes, I knew you were a transgenic right away. I've only ever seen one person kick like you, and that's Max."

Kay was at a loss for words. Was this a coincidence or what? "How do you know Max?"

He turned to look at her in surprise. "You know her, too? I don't suppose you knew Logan as well, huh?"

"Yeah, I knew him. So, how do you know them?"

"Before Logan got his exoskeleton, I was his physical trainer and pretty much the live-in help. My name's Bling."

She thought desperately for a moment, then said, "I'm Nicki. So, are you going back to Seattle?"

"Yeah, I figured it's as good a place as any. When Logan didn't really need me anymore, I went out to see my mother in New York because she hadn't been doing so good at the time. Her funeral was the other day, so I figured I should get out of there. She was the only one I was close to, and I didn't feel comfortable being there without her. I thought coming back to Seattle would be good for me."

"Sorry about your mom," she said softly. Talking at all about mothers made her think of her own situation with Paige. How far ahead had that car gotten? She couldn't see it from where she was sitting, but she figured that as long as Bling was a friend of Logan's, he might be worth asking for help. "Not to inconvenience you or anything, but could you speed up a bit? I'm kind of following someone."

"Should I bother asking who?" he asked, already accelerating the truck.

"I'd really rather not talk about it just yet, ok?"

"Ok, I can handle that."

* * *

Max watched White pace around his house, lashing out at different solid objects as he stalked around. When they had seen the car pull away and saw the distant fight between the blonde woman and the three familiars, all of whom were too far away to watch properly, White had immediately headed back to the house and tried to call someone, but apparently there hadn't been an answer. He'd made no objections to her following along behind him, in fact, he didn't appear to have noticed her. It was like he had forgotten all about her. What had been so important about that baby? 

Currently, she was sitting at the kitchen table eating a leftover piece of sausage pizza that she'd found in the refrigerator. After all, she'd missed her chance to have dinner with Logan. "If you don't mind me asking again, what the hell is going on here?"

Her voice seemed to snap White out of his thoughts, because he whipped around to look at her as though he'd never seen her before. The hardened, irate expression returned to his face and he ripped the partly eaten piece of pizza out of her hands. "Like I said before, it's none of your business. And who gave you permission to eat my food?"

Despite the fact that he was trying to cover it up, Max was starting to get a whole new feeling from him. "You don't even really know what's happening, do you?"

"I know more than you do," he scowled.

"Fair enough," she replied, reaching up and snatching back the pizza.

He could only stare at her, trying to get his thoughts straight. He decided to focus on one thing at a time. "Why are you even here in the first place? It's not like I was hunting down any more of your kind, even though I could do it for fun if I really wanted to. I doubt this is a social call."

She took a large, deliberate bite of the pizza, making him glare at her even more furiously. "Well, in a way it is. I was a little bit curious about something."

He looked extremely doubtful. "You came 400 miles because you were a 'little bit curious about something?' Now, why don't I believe that?"

She shrugged and took another extremely exaggerated bite. "I don't really care what you believe, but I have a question to ask you anyway. As far as I know, you were the last person to see Kay back at the big fight, and I want to know if she's alive."

What? It took her eight months to come out and ask me, and of all days she had to choose today to come! "You must be mistaken," he sneered, his voice dripping with forced politeness. "The last time I saw Kay is when she entered the stadium. When I followed her, all I found was a dead Thula. She had already left. Now, I think it's a good idea for you to leave my house right now, and for Christ's sake stop eating like that in front of me. Take it with you if you want, but stop eating like a pig."

Max wasn't sure whether to be happy or not as she left and made her way back to her motorcycle. She was glad her sister was alive, but that meant that she had chosen not to come back and try to patch things up with everyone. _After what she did, I think she at least owes us an explanation for her behavior, or doesn't she think we deserve that?_ Something else was bothering her too. That was by far the most civil conversation she had ever had with White, and he had let her go too easily. Either he had something up his sleeve, or he was so distracted by this baby business that he didn't have the time to deal with her. It only made her more curious about why that baby was so important. Knowing White, it probably wasn't anything good.

* * *

Ben had stopped at a gas station in Lakeside to change Paige's diaper, which was an adventure all on its own. First, he discovered that the men's bathroom didn't have a diaper-changing table in it. _I suppose they assume the mother does it most of the time._ All the same, it was rather aggravating. He finally had to settle for taking off Jennifer's jacket and using it as a barrier so nothing could get on the seat, and transferring Jennifer's body to the trunk so he could use the entire back seat as his own personal changing table. He nearly gagged when he first opened the diaper, and the entire process of wiping Paige's little behind was far from pleasant for him. By the time he was done, he had come to the conclusion that he would never have children. It had crossed his mind before, back when his life had been something approaching normal, but this little rascal was quickly changing his mind. She looked up at him innocently when he finally finished putting a fresh diaper on her and picked her up to survey how well he'd done. "Don't try and look cute now, you're the whole reason my day is going downhill," he mumbled, carrying the dirty diaper over to the dumpster and dropping it in with a great look of distaste on his face. 

He carried Paige around the parking lot, looking for a suitable enough car. Jennifer's was too risky, the other familiars knew what she had been driving. He didn't want them tracking him down before he was ready for them. He finally decided on a deep green SUV. It would give him plenty of room the next time he had to change a diaper. After his first time doing it, he decided he needed as much room as possible. He settled Paige as comfortably as he could in the front seat, then ran back to the car and collected everything Jennifer had bought for the baby.

Bling's truck pulled into the gas station on the north side just as the SUV pulled out on the south side. Stopping was the last thing Kay wanted to do, but the truck needed gas. While Bling filled it up, Kay walked around to soothe some of her nerves. Being separated from Paige right now was so painful that she felt on the verge of tears with every breath she took. Suddenly, she came to a dead stop when she saw Jennifer's car. She had almost walked straight past it, but with her eyes pointed towards the ground, she managed to catch the license plate out of the corner of her eye. She ran to look in the windows, but nothing was there. There was no sign of a baby ever being in the car. Still, when she went to the front and placed her hands on the hood, it was still hot. The car hadn't been here long, but what vehicle had they taken? Now she had absolutely nothing to go on.

While she was walking around the car, she slammed her fist down on the trunk in frustration, then gently tapped on it again. Unless she was mistaken, something really big was in the trunk. She walked to the front and opened the unlocked door on the driver's side, then pressed the button to pop the trunk open. She gasped when she opened it and saw Jennifer's body. This meant that Paige was with that man she'd seen earlier, the one who'd been watching the house while the others went off to follow Ames.

"Oh my God, where's my car!"

Kay ran over to where an extremely distressed woman was standing in an empty parking space. "Excuse me, but did you say your car's gone?"

"Yes! I know it was right here! I know it was stupid of me to leave the keys in it, but I was only going in for a minute."

Kay could have cried again, but out of sheer bliss rather than sadness. "What did it look like?"

Even though she obviously thought it was a useless question, the woman replied, "It was just a dark green Chevy Tahoe. I only bought it two months ago. God, why do things always happen to me?"

As Kay walked away, she couldn't help thinking sarcastically, _Just be thankful you haven't had _my_ day._

* * *

Author's Note: Please review! So far, Astra, you're my hero! Well, I guess heroine is actually the correct term. :) BR, you've been wonderful too, I smile every time I read one of your reviews. 


	5. If the World Was Perfect

Author's Note: **Stymied**, I'm going to repeat what I said in the prologue of this story: _This is a sequel to "The Second Key," which is also a sequel to "Outside." I can guarantee that you will be completely lost if you don't read those first._ After you read those, you'll be able to understand more of this.

Disclaimer: Kay and Paige are mine.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 4: If the World Was Perfect

It was nearly three in the morning when Bling and Kay arrived in Seattle. Kay had been searching relentlessly, but she never saw a dark green Chevy Tahoe except for once, just when they first pulled onto the interstate. Now she wasn't even sure if it was the right one. She hadn't seen it since then, which had been around four hours ago. What were the chances that Paige's kidnapper was going to Seattle? Bling offered her the only comfort he could, even though it didn't make her feel much better.

"You know, Logan could probably track down this person you're following in no time. You know he has all those contacts."

Sure, Logan could probably do it. But would he? Everything in her screamed that she couldn't tell anyone about having a daughter. She didn't know what their reactions would be, and she knew Logan would never keep it from Max. If she told him, it would eventually get spread to the others. The last thing she wanted was for Zack to know what the results of his despicable trick on her had been. "Maybe I'll ask him," she replied softly. Perhaps if she could come up with a good enough lie for why she was tracking this person, he would do it without getting too suspicious. _Of course, if the world was perfect, Paige would be right here in Seattle and I wouldn't have to bother with any of that._

As she was thinking this over, Bling asked, "Do you have anywhere to stay?"

Getting a place to sleep had never occurred to her. "Now that you mention it, no, but I wasn't exactly making arrangements to come into town."

"Well, if you're interested, I have an extra room in my apartment. I'm sure the place will be dusty, I haven't been there for a while, but it's up to you."

"As long as you don't mind," she said tentatively. As nice as Bling was, she wasn't sure she felt like living with him. What other options did she have, though? She didn't want to waste the money she'd stolen from Ames, and a hotel would suck all the money right out of her. As long as she had someone willing to take her in, she might as well take advantage of it. She just wished she were on the run with her daughter right now, instead of on the run and looking for her. She had never been separated from Paige for so long, and she was stunned at the physical need to hold her daughter in her arms. She needed to feel Paige's warm, soft little body against her, whether she was sleeping or feeding or even crying her eyes out. The pressure in her chest was already growing as the milk started to build up without a release. Was that man taking care of Paige? Was he feeding her? As soon as she was in Bling's apartment and he had pointed her in the direction of the guest room, she threw herself down on the bed and bit down as hard as she could on her lip to hold back her tears of frustration. The worst scenarios were rising in her mind, nearly all of them ending with Paige wasting away from some form of neglect or another. What if that man was violent? How would he handle a crying baby? What if the cult was planning on killing her because she was a hybrid? If the first six hours of separation were so dreadful, she didn't how she would handle it if she didn't have Paige in her arms by the end of the week.

* * *

The clerk at the Yum Yum Tree Hotel seemed surprised to see someone at such hours of the night, so Ben felt relieved when he didn't bother to ask questions. He must have assumed that someone coming in at this time was hiding from something, and generally people hiding from something weren't fun to tangle with. Ben had had to change Paige's diaper one more time during the drive, as well as mix some of the formula Jennifer had bought so he could feed her. For some reason, she had no interest in taking a drink from the bottle he offered her. Eventually, her hunger took over and she sucked on it greedily, staring at him suspiciously the whole time as though she knew this was not the person who usually fed her, but he also had the strong feeling that she didn't like the formula very much. _She's awfully young, maybe she was breastfed before._

Now that he was alone with the baby in a place where he could really settle down and think, he found that he was incredibly curious about why she was so important to White. None of this made any sense to him. From what he'd overheard at the laundromat, he knew that it had been Jennifer's job to grab the baby, while the other men would take out the people in the house.

__

"Yes, sir, the child is everything he said she was. Is he in charge of removing her from the mother?"

"He believes he is, but I have another plan. That's why I called you here. He told me that he's planning on taking the child today, and I want you to be there. I'll be sending a team of our people with you. They will be in charge of setting explosives around the house, while you will have to remove the child before they are detonated. I believe he will kill the mother, so I want you to be removing the child at the same time she is killed. With any luck, his house will blow up before he realizes that the baby is gone."

So, did that mean that White was the one who believed he was in charge of getting the baby? That meant that the man in the laundromat wanted him dead. Why would they want to kill White? And what did this baby have to do with it? As though she knew he was thinking about her, Paige squeaked softly in her sleep and stretched slightly, then remained motionless. He had placed her at the head of the bed and surrounded her carefully with pillows so she couldn't move, while he lay sideways on the bed and tried to figure everything out. The other thing that had occurred to him was that White had gone into the woods to look for the mother and child after Jennifer told him not to. The baby was here with him, so where was the mother? Unless one of the familiars had killed her in the woods, which he doubted because he would have heard it, then she was very much alive and probably wondering where her baby was. _Maybe I shouldn't have taken the baby. I might have been able to kill them all in the woods, Max be damned. Maybe I didn't need to go to these measures._

Ben shook his head fiercely, trying to block the guilty thoughts from his head. He had done a marvelous job at holding his feelings at bay ever since the day of the fight, the last thing he needed was to go soft now. Finders keepers, so he was the one who would get to use the baby for his purposes. If the mother really wanted to find the girl, she would be able to track her down to whatever orphanage he left her at. If he really felt guilty, he could drop the kid off at a police station and tell them he'd come across her in a dumpster or something. When the notice went out, the mother would be able to find her. Of course, he could always leave the kid on Logan's doorstep, Logan would be sure to have her back to her rightful home in no time.

__

Why did I come to Seattle, anyway? The truth was that he didn't really know. He had no reason to be here, but something had pulled him back. Maybe it was seeing Max in Montana, he really didn't know. She had passed him on her motorcycle on the interstate, she had probably beaten him into town by a half hour at the rate she was going. Her presence had confused him as well. He understood that for some reason the familiars wanted that baby, but why was Max there? Now a new issue rose in his mind. Should he let Max know he was alive? That meant it would get spread around, and pretty soon his siblings would surround him again. He wasn't sure whether he wanted that or not. He missed Zack and Brin, but did he really want to be close to them again? Zack would immediately put a stop to his search for a human being worthy of the Blue Lady's protection. His faith in her had never wavered, although he learned to keep some of his methods of expressing his reverence restrained. Even during his time at the farm when the X5s and even Lydecker surrounded him, he hadn't changed his mind about the Blue Lady. It was just that somehow his life had felt so complete. Of course, that wasn't because of Brin or Zack, it was because of Kay. Her presence in his life had changed everything. At first he had wanted to kill her so that she and the Nomlies couldn't corrupt his family like he believed they were doing, but it had slowly changed.

It was when she rescued him from White and they had come across Brin that he realized she couldn't be an ally of the Nomlies. He had a strong belief that Lydecker was also their ally in a distant way, but Kay's hate for the man was obvious to everyone, even to him. Why would allies hate each other? Rescuing Brin wasn't something he would expect the Nomlies to want either, so he had started to doubt his own beliefs concerning Kay. Although his conviction that Nomlies existed never faltered, his certainty that she was working with them faded away. When they were back on the farm, she made every attempt to befriend him, which worked quickly because he didn't know anyone else other than Zack, Brin, and Lydecker, and Zack didn't trust him, Brin was still in soldier mode, and Lydecker…well, his past record was against him. Kay was the only outlet he had, and he learned quickly that she was nothing like he had expected her to be. She was actually nice, and during the time that Alec was around, he got the chance to see her much lighter side. When she turned to him after Kody's murder, it had completely changed him. Unknown by anyone, even Kay, she was the first woman he had ever been with. His focus on the Blue Lady didn't exactly leave him time for romance, which he had absolutely no interest in, but suddenly he knew what it was like to be as close as you can be with someone. It wasn't until her nearly fatal fever that he realized he was in love with her, and somehow that filled up his life in a way that he felt no urge to kill anyone. His reasoning was that the Blue Lady had given him a gift for how good of a servant he had been for her, and he also took it as a signal that his job was done. She didn't want him to kill for her anymore, she was finally going to live up to what he'd always wanted her to do; she was going to protect him and let him live a happy life. It didn't turn out so happily, though.

Ben never knew what happened to Kay after their last conversation, but he had seen White hiding outside that room when he left with his gun in his hand, so he could only assume that White was going to kill her. Maybe it was all for the best. Now he didn't have to worry about running into her ever again. Suddenly, Paige started to cry her little heart out over in her soft nest of pillows. He sighed and sat up to take a better look at her. He couldn't smell anything, so her diaper didn't need to be changed. _She must be hungry._ He sighed and pulled out the formula and the bottle. He would have to go down and see if there was a way he could get the milk heated up. By the time he had everything done and returned to the room, Paige was entirely red in the face from screaming. He distinctly heard the grumbles of neighboring rooms as their occupants opened their doors to look out and see what was going on. Once again, Paige made every attempt to avoid the nipple of the bottle he presented to her, but like before, she gave in to her hunger before too long. Her large blue eyes gazed up at him as she drank, hardly blinking at all. He could see the confusion in her eyes at this strange person holding her. If anything, it amused him. She couldn't have been born more than two weeks ago, but she knew perfectly well who should be holding her and who shouldn't. He'd never had the opportunity to take care of a baby before, and as much as he disliked changing diapers, he was starting to see why people wanted kids. _Great, I really _am_ going soft._

* * *

Ames paced the laundromat relentlessly, impatiently waiting for the High Priest to return. The more he thought about everything, the angrier he became. He didn't believe a word Jennifer said, she hadn't been there to make sure the job was done, she had been there to take over. By now he had no doubt that the other men were meant to kill him. _Why is this so surprising? They know what you are, what you've created, and you haven't exactly been a stellar servant to them in the past,_ he told himself, enraged that he hadn't expected something like this. Now everything was wrong. The Conclave had Paige, Kay was still alive, and somehow he hadn't gotten the chance to be involved in anything. Ray was spending the night at a friend's house, but Ames knew they would have to move on soon. If the Conclave wanted him dead, they couldn't very well stay here.

Alistair Bougeman watched Ames silently from the small television screen in front of him. Did that foolish little man really believe he was going to go back there? His people hadn't elected him High Priest for nothing. He had always been wise beyond his years, with a cunning and cleverness that he was sure had been held by Alexander the Great himself. Of course, Alexander was one of his distant ancestors, so he felt that his family line was destined for greatness from the beginning. He had absolutely no intention of allowing this new key to be a true member of the cult. She would serve her purpose, then he would be finished with her. The same went for Ames White. Seeing as how Jennifer had not yet contacted him and the team he had sent with her had seen her leaving with a strange man attempting to get into the car, he knew he couldn't eliminate White just yet. He might know how to find the girl again, and at the moment she was his highest priority.

When he thought about it, Alistair realized this entire situation was irony in its greatest form. Not only was Sandeman part of the family his people had worked so hard to find, but he had also created atrocious creatures that went against everything the Conclave stood for. Now, it was the offspring of his son and one of his creations that could ultimately bring about the one thing he had been trying to prevent. Alistair laughed out loud at the sweet justice of it all. He wished that for just one moment, Sandeman could come back to life, just so he could see the look on his face when he realized how futile his attempts had been, and in the end, how helpful they had been to the cult.

* * *

Alec had stayed at Crash most of the night, wondering why Brin hadn't called him yet. Had she already left but felt like playing a joke on him? He couldn't see how she could still be there. What in the world could they be talking about? He had flirted meaninglessly with some women, but turned all of them down when they invited him to come to their places. Flirting was all good and fun, but he was with Jondy. He couldn't believe how much loving someone could change him. He very easily could have gone with one of those women, but his guilt would have killed him. The truth was, even though he had seen several women that were more beautiful than Jondy, he wasn't as attracted to them as he was to her. He wasn't quite sure how that made sense, but that's how it was. Bickering with her was his favorite pastime, right along with what they did behind closed doors. They were perfect matches for each other.

His head jerked around when he heard a very distinctive set of feet walking towards him. He usually didn't notice the sounds of people walking, but somehow he could always hear it when Zack was approaching. "What are you doing here?" Zack snapped as he reached the bar. "Getting bored with my sister already?"

Alec gritted his teeth, clutching his glass of beer nearly to its breaking point in his effort to hold himself back from lashing out. "Not that it's any of your business, but _your_ girlfriend is talking to her at the moment and I got the very clear feeling that I shouldn't be there. Is she getting bored with you already? Not that I blame her, you're not exactly a barrel of laughs."

Zack turned to him, choosing to ignore Alec's last remarks. "Brin's at your place?"

"Yep, and I'm starting to think she and Jondy got drunk and passed out, because I don't think they've ever talked this long. Jondy's usually talking to Max, but I couldn't get a hold of her."

"Wait, are you saying you called Brin to have her talk to Jondy?"

Alec couldn't see why Zack was bothering to have this conversation with him unless he was hoping to use it against him somehow. He was sure that if he told Zack about Jondy crying, he would jump to conclusions that Alec had done something wrong. "Jondy wasn't feeling so hot, so I thought having Brin around would make her feel better."

"You're lying to me," Zack commented matter-of-factly as he grabbed the pitcher from in front of Alec and poured himself a glass of beer. "If Jondy wasn't feeling well, you wouldn't have had to leave. You said that Brin is talking to her, so what's she talking to her about?"

"Don't ask me," Alec mumbled, looking around the bar for anyone he knew so that he could get away from Zack. "Why are you here, anyway?"

"I couldn't sleep," was the only answer he got. "Did you do something to upset Jondy?"  
  
"No!" Alec snapped, turning to face the other X5. "She's just a little bit emotional, and I'm not good at handling that. It's not too unusual, sometimes she gets a little moody around this time."

Zack rolled his eyes, this was the last thing he wanted to hear about. The X5 females sometimes became moody just before a heat cycle because their hormones were going insane as they prepared for it. He didn't want to hear anything about Jondy's cycles, because he had the feeling that Alec wasn't the type to hold back information. Suddenly, Alec's cell phone went off. He looked at the caller ID, mumbled "Finally!" and answered the phone. "Hello…You sure?…What took so long?…Fine, you don't have to be rude, I was just asking…Yeah, I know you were doing me a favor…Ok, I got the point, I'm coming home!" He sighed and hung up the phone. "Brin's leaving and I'm supposed to go home, so as lovely as this little conversation as been, I'm going to have to cut it short. See ya later."

He sped back to his apartment, his curiosity eating away at his insides. He desperately wanted to know what they had been talking about, and he hoped Jondy was going to tell him. When he reached his apartment, he saw with relief that at least she had stopped crying, but she looked extremely nervous and the redness in her eyes hadn't quite disappeared. She really didn't look her best at the moment. "So, what's up?" He wanted to make a sarcastic crack about how long her visit with Brin had taken, but he didn't think now was the right time.

"Um, I think you should sit down, because I don't know how you're going to react to this." He obediently sat down, waiting for her to start talking, but she just bit her lip and started fiddling anxiously with her fingers, her eyes darting back and forth as she struggled with how to begin.

"Why were you crying earlier?" he prompted, hoping to give her a way to start talking and get everything out.

If anything, it made it more difficult for her to start because she only became more nervous when he started to push, but at least it gave her a nudge in the right direction. "I overheard you talking to Max earlier, and it scared me a little." She hesitated, but held up a hand when she saw his mouth begin to open to give her another gentle push. "I heard everything you said about not wanting kids, and it really hit me hard because…" She broke off fearfully, unsure if she could get the words out. "Because, well…I know this isn't something we were planning on…" _God, why is this so hard? Is he going to be angry?_

Alec's eyes widened. "Jondy, are you pregnant?" He saw the moisture start to build up at the corners of her eyes as she nodded, and suddenly he could have kicked himself. Of all the conversations he had had with Max today, she had to overhear that one? It wasn't her fault, but he felt like an ass for saying what he had even though he hadn't known at the time what the situation was. He stood up and hurried over to her, picking up her hand and completely enclosing it in both of his. He wasn't sure what he thought about this, truth be told it definitely wasn't something he had been looking for right now, but he couldn't say any of that to Jondy. They were going to have a baby, and she was going to need him through every part of it. "I'm sorry about what I said earlier, and I'm even sorrier that you had to hear it. How long have you known you are pregnant?"

She looked up at him, suddenly feeling hopeful at the sudden tenderness he was showing. "A couple days. I took a pregnancy test because I've been feeling weird lately. I don't know how far along I am, but I'm sure we'll find out when I go to the doctor." She stood up so that she could look more easily into his eyes. She knew her own were conveying her apprehension. "I guess I'll need to get used to saying the words. I'm having a baby." The sentence echoed in her mind, stirring up a confusing mixture of combating emotions.

Alec smiled down at her. For some reason, those words had a special ring to them, but he wanted to change them just slightly. "No, Jondy, _we're_ having a baby." Suddenly, a smile broke out on her face and she hugged him, overwhelmingly grateful that he had accepted it so quickly. He wasn't sure how happy he was, but he hoped he would adjust to the idea. _I'm going to be a dad. Wow, who'd a thunk?_

* * *

Max was pacing around Logan's house, listening to his deep breathing in the other room. He hadn't expected her to return tonight, so she didn't think it was right for her to wake him up. Just because she didn't sleep didn't mean that she had the right to wake him up at all hours of the night. She could tell him everything that went down in the morning. Besides, she doubted he would have any more insights into the situation than she had. She knew his first order of business would be to find out who the baby was. Or, more importantly, _what_ the baby was. Was it another familiar? She doubted it was human, but she also didn't think it was likely that the baby was transgenic. She couldn't see what the big deal was. The only thing she could think of was that maybe one of the women chosen to be paired with a familiar had found out about them and ran off with the kid. It was a possibility, but surely they wouldn't need so many familiars to track down an ordinary woman? And where was the woman? The only other two women Max had seen in the woods were definitely not ordinary, both had been moving at incredible speeds. She wished she could have gotten a better look at them, but it was hard to see something when it was moving at insane speeds through trees.

She sat down at the computer and nudged the mouse, effectively turning off the screensaver and revealing the picture of Ray's Little League team that Logan had left on the screen. If he was going to that school, then he couldn't possibly still be in the cult, which meant that White had done exactly what he told her he would do. He had taken his son and gone into hiding. Up until now it appeared that they had been living a fairly normal life, excepting the fact that White was killing himself with an impossible workload. He hadn't even gotten the chance to use whatever he had bought from Lethil & Prowdovet. She was surprised that he hadn't used it against her while she was there, but he had seemed so preoccupied with everything that was going on that perhaps it hadn't occurred to him. He may have forgotten that he had it.

Max clicked through all the other information Logan had left on the screen. Most of it was what he'd told her already, while the rest were just little tidbits of information relating to his other Eyes Only projects. Suddenly, she came across his video player. Why was this open? She clicked the PLAY button, then sat back to watch. It turned out to be footage from the big fight, but it was focusing on a door on the east side of the stadium. All of a sudden, Kay stepped through the door and looked around, surveying the scene around her. It was pretty obvious when her eyes landed on Thula, because she took off at a brisk and determined walk. The angle changed so Max knew this footage was from another camera at the same time, which followed Kay's pursuit of Thula into the hallway that led to the locker rooms. From there Max knew they would weave through the corridors until they reached the heat room, where Thula was planning to set off the Coming. That wasn't quite how it worked out, however. The camera never moved from its position, but a quick black flash and a jump of the numbers on the bottom right of the screen told her that time had just moved ahead nearly fifteen minutes. _Wait a second, that's White!_ He had told her about finding Thula dead, but he never mentioned anything about being the one to carry her out and dispose of her body. If the cult had seen any of this footage, she was sure they would have killed him in the woods when she was there.

The camera remained in its position, but no time lapse was required. Two more people were entering the passageway. One was tall and incredibly muscular, and he was half carrying the other man, who looked somewhat emaciated. He certainly wouldn't have been able to move around without help. Not long after they had disappeared down the passageway, White returned and headed after them. She waited as the earlier pair came back out, and then winced when she caught a glimpse of the frailer man. The footage wasn't perfectly clear and she couldn't see much of his face, but from what she could see, his head was a horrible mess of scar tissue. She waited longer, expecting White to emerge, but he never did. She sat quietly with her eyes on the screen for over forty-five minutes, but all she could see were the people fighting in that corner of the stadium. White must have taken a different way out. She didn't see why Logan had been watching this, unless he had been hoping to find out something more about Kay's disappearance. _Wait, I never saw Kay come back out either. Was White lying to me?_ With how distracted he had been during her visit, she wouldn't have thought so, but he could have been. It came easily enough to him.

She minimized the player on the screen and sat back, looking again at Ray's picture. Her eyes lazily wandered away from the screen, running over the various pieces of paper on the desk. That's when she noticed the slip of paper just to the right of the keyboard. It contained all his notes on the video that she had just watched, but he had viciously scribbled something out near the bottom of the paper. It couldn't have been more than just one word, it wasn't long by any means. She looked around at the other papers around her. This had all been here before, but that paper hadn't. If she was lucky, he had written on the paper while it was still on the pad, then ripped it off, changed his mind later about what he had written, and scribbled it out. She picked up the notepad and smiled when she saw the light indent of the word "fight" on the top of it, exactly where he had written it on the paper she was curious about. She immediately looked down at the bottom and smiled again when she saw that there was definitely a word there and not a scribble. Turning her chair so her back was to the lamp, she held up the notepad until it was bathed fully in the light and concentrated on what he had written.

__

Together?

Max stared at the word for a minute. Why had he followed it with a question mark? Suddenly, her eyes shot back to where she'd minimized the video player. Neither White nor Kay had exited by means of that passageway. Did that mean they had left together? She dropped the notepad on the desk and ran her fingers through her hair. Had Kay been in the woods in Montana? She had caught a glimpse of a blonde woman, and even though Kay's hair had been red the last time she saw her didn't mean that she hadn't changed it back. She hadn't been able to focus on the woman, but she had certainly been very fast and extremely powerful. Taking out three familiars was no easy task. Now none of this made any sense, she had even more questions than before. Finally, she shook her head and walked into the kitchen to get something to eat. It was ridiculous, Kay had made it clear that she hated White. The blonde woman in the woods had been another familiar, that's all there was to it. _I swear, Max, you're starting to lose it._ After filling her stomach with some leftover pasta in the refrigerator, Max walked to Logan's bedroom. Even if she didn't plan on sleeping, nothing was preventing her from lying next to him and watching him sleep.

* * *

A/N 2: Please read and review! 


	6. Family Matters

Disclaimer: Guess which two characters are mine?

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 5: Family Matters

Jondy couldn't have been more terrified as she walked into JamPony the next day. She and Alec had agreed that it was probably best to share the news with everyone right away, but she had no idea how she was going to break it to them. _Oh God, how is Zack going to react?_ She remembered his fury over Tinga's pregnancy, and he had even admitted to her that he didn't think Charlie was a bad guy. If he had tolerated Charlie, how would he handle having Alec as the father of his sister's baby? The only person that she thought would probably take it well was Max. Max had told her countless times about how she wished she could have been with Tinga or Jace through their pregnancies. This would give her a chance to act like the overprotective sister she had come to be. Her time in Terminal City had given her a lot of Zack-like qualities, but she wasn't quite as overbearing. Annoying sometimes, perhaps, but tolerable.

"Hot run, 613 Blanchard Street!" Normal called out, tossing a package to Alec. He turned to look at her apologetically.

"I'll give this to someone else, I should really be there when you tell everyone."

"No, actually, I think it would be better if you weren't. I don't know what Zack's going to do when he finds out, and it's probably best if you're not in the area when he hears it. Just go, I'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, just go before he gets here. Brin promised me she would let me tell him, but sometimes I swear Zack is psychic. He usually knows what's happening before anyone else does, so I don't want to take the chance that he'll walk in here already knowing about the baby. There he is, so go!" Alec turned and was out the door just as Zack reached her.

"Why did Brin have to come over to your house last night? She won't tell me, and I want to know now." His face was locked and set in his C.O. expression, which didn't exactly make her feel better. She wanted her big brother right now, not her C.O.

"Just hold your horses, I'll tell you when I'm good and ready," she replied firmly, not flinching at all when he crossed his arms and glared at her, as if hoping the look would be enough to make her spill everything.

For once in her life, Max made it to work on time. Logan was still asleep when she left, so she figured there was no reason to disturb him. He had worn himself out with all that research yesterday, and as much as she wanted to know his thoughts on the fight footage, it wasn't worth disturbing him. She would talk to him tonight. As soon as she entered JamPony, she became aware that two pairs of eyes were on her. She turned to see Zack and Jondy watching her, Jondy looking as though she wished Max had taken longer, and Zack looking as though he wanted to say "About time!" _Hey buddy, I was on time today, you can't ask for much more than that._ Brin was off to their left, digging through her locker as though she was looking for an excuse not to be near the pair.

"What's up?" she asked cautiously as she approached them. Zack uncrossed his arms and turned to face Jondy.

"I don't know, we've been waiting for you."

Jondy's eyes snapped from one to the other apprehensively, then she sighed and sat down. "I don't know any other way to say this other than straight out, so here goes nothing. I'm going to have a baby."

Max's jaw dropped while Zack suddenly looked as though he had swallowed something too large for his throat. Max was the first to find her voice again. "Are you sure? Have you been to the doctor yet?"

"No, but I took a home pregnancy test. It was pretty clear, I'm pregnant."

Max glanced at Zack to see his face, then decided she needed to do something before he exploded. She smiled excitedly at Jondy and leaned down to give her a hug. "That's great! I know it must be unexpected, but you know you've got plenty of people here with you. Have you decided what you want?"

Jondy's eyes widened. She hadn't even thought that far ahead yet. "No, I haven't really thought about it yet, but it might be nice to have a little girl. I bet Alec will be hoping for a boy, which wouldn't bother me either. As long as everything goes okay, I don't really mind what it is."

Zack clenched and unclenched his fists a few times, trying to push back his reservations about this. There was a time for stating his opinions, but this wasn't it. Jondy looked up at him hopefully, tears shining around the edges of her eyes. _Take a deep breath, forget how much you don't like this, and be nice for once in your life._ He offered a tight smile and squeezed her shoulder gently. He couldn't bring himself to say anything supportive, but he knew Jondy would take his silence for what it was, a sign that he wasn't happy, but he wouldn't be too pushy about it. Jondy smiled and stood up to pull him into a tight hug, sighing with relief when he returned it. "Thanks, Zack," she whispered in his ear, knowing that it would take him a long time to get used to this. She hoped that once the baby was born, though, that he'd take one look at it and forget any qualms he had.

* * *

Kay procrastinated until nearly noon, then finally she knew she couldn't hold off any longer. She had borrowed Bling's truck and drove all over town, trying to find the SUV, but she hadn't seen anything yet. Sure, she had come across a few vehicles that were close to fitting the bill, but none of them were the right one. She really didn't have a choice now, she would have to talk to Logan. At the moment, she was standing outside Logan's door, rubbing her sweaty palms against her jeans. The last thing she had ever wanted to do was see anyone from Seattle again, the memories were too painful. Everything here reminded her of the happiness that had been in her hands for a few sweet months, then ripped from her with such force that it left her reeling in the aftermath. _Logan was the last friend I was with before I found out I was pregnant, excluding Ben._

After five minutes of just standing in front of the door with her fist raised in the air, preparing to knock but never quite getting the job done, she knew she would have to do something sooner or later. _Just do it. You were on the best terms with Logan when you left, so what's the worst that could happen? Max is at work, so the coast is clear. Just **knock**._ The dull thuds echoed through the house, and then she could hear Logan's casual footsteps approaching the door. When he opened it, it was like the world stopped for a minute. Her entire body tensed expectantly, ready for the interrogation and cold treatment she was sure were coming, but finally Logan stepped to the side and held out a hand pointing towards the inside of the house. "Do you want to come in?" She nodded numbly, confused as to why he was being so civil. Even when she left he had been acting colder than this.

Logan watched her walk slowly into the house, heading naturally towards the living room. He closed the door and followed quietly, waiting for her to say something. He couldn't quite describe what had gone through his mind when he saw her, but there was a strong sense of tension radiating from her. She was afraid, and he knew she must have been dreading confronting any of her old friends. When he had seen that fear in her eyes, he knew that he couldn't just bark at her, "Where have you been?" If she had her reasons for not coming back before now, then it wasn't his right to question that. He watched her eyes wander around the room, and he knew she was just trying to put off talking. He would have to be the one to get things started. "Is there any reason you wanted to see me?"

Kay turned to face him, unsure if she was terrified that he hadn't said anything harsh yet, or relieved. Her lips parted slightly as she started to say that she needed his help, then closed again. She couldn't just start right out like that, he would more than likely turn her down. She would need to take a different approach. "How's it been going lately?" she asked softly.

__

Ok, so she's not ready to start talking yet. I can deal with that. "Pretty good. I've got my whole operation up and running again, and the virus has been cured so Max and I can be together."

She nodded, glad that at least something had worked out for them. "How about everyone else?"

"Jondy and Alec are doing well, not much is different with them. Zack and Brin became involved very shortly after the fight, and they've been pretty happy ever since. There's really not much else to know. How have you been?"

"Not bad. I just really needed to get some things sorted out." _Sure, for eight months. Like he's going to believe that._ "I haven't really been up to much, just laying low. It would just bore you if I told you everything."

Now Logan was sure she had some ulterior motive for coming to see him. Why, of all people, would she visit him first? He would have expected her to visit Brin first, they were the closest. He knew she was hiding something, and he was sure it had to do with the months that had passed since she'd been gone. His mind wandered to the video clip he had watched last night. Were his suspicions right? Had she left that stadium with White? "If you don't mind me asking, I received some interesting footage yesterday about the fight and I've been wondering something. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, I'm just curious. Did you leave with White that night?"

Kay's eyes widened. This was the last place she wanted to go with him. He had already seen the shock on her face, so she knew it was no use telling him that she hadn't. That still didn't mean she had to tell him the entire truth, though. "Yeah, actually, I did. It wasn't really either of our choices though. I was injured pretty badly in my fight with Thula, and White was planning to kill me. Ray must have stowed away with us when we drove to the stadium, because he came running in just before White pulled the trigger and he begged him to leave me alone. I passed out right after that, but I guess Ray convinced him to take me to a hospital, because I woke up in Harbor Lights. He and Ray were already long gone by then, so as soon as I was good to go, I took off. I wasn't really ready to come back here yet." It felt strange calling Ames by his last name again when she hadn't called him that in months, but she knew saying his first name would make Logan suspicious.

Logan nodded thoughtfully, that made a lot of sense. There was only one thing left that he didn't understand. "So, what was it exactly that made you decide to come back now, and why did you come to see me first?"

Kay sighed, now was as good a time as any to ask. "I know it's definitely not the right reason to come back, and I probably should have come long before this, but I need help. I came to see you because you're the only one who could really help me."

__

Ah, so now we get to it. "What exactly do you need me to do?"

"I'm tracking someone down. All I know is he's a male, and I'm sure he's a familiar. He has something of mine that I need, but I have no idea where he is. He came in this general direction in a dark green Chevy Tahoe that he stole. I lost him a while back, but I still think he was heading this way. I didn't get a very good look at him, but it looked like he had short, light brown hair. Do you think you could find him?"

Logan studied her face, and realized this was the first time he had ever seen that particular expression on her face. Even though she was doing her best to hide it, she looked helpless. "What did he take that's yours?"

Kay had no idea what to say to him. She couldn't tell him about Paige, but what if he refused to do anything until she told him what she was looking for? "I can't tell you just yet." When he looked at her suspiciously, she blurted out quickly, "I promise I'll tell you once I've got it back and everything is settled, and I know you'll understand then, but I can't tell you right now."

Logan didn't get why she wouldn't tell him. Was it something that he would regret helping her out with? Her eyes were conveying her desperation, and eventually he replied, "Fine, but you need to give me a reason for why you're not ready to tell me everything."

__

God, he's eventually going to drag it out of me if he keeps going like this, or with his brains he'll probably figure it out for himself. "It's not so much _you_ that I don't want to tell, I just don't want the others to know about it, and I know if I tell you, you'll tell Max and she'll tell Brin and Jondy, then it will get to Alec and Zack and I'm just not ready for that yet. I don't want to have to deal with them while I'm searching. I'll tell them afterwards, but I can't do it right now." She knew she was babbling, she had said the entire thing in one breath.

Well, he could understand that. The X5s were easily excitable, so he couldn't really blame her for not wanting them to know anything. That didn't mean he was going to do this in the dark, though. "Ok, I understand that you don't want them to know, but I think I'll need to know more. I promise I won't tell anyone, I won't even tell them you're here if you don't want me to, but I think it would be more helpful if I knew what this man had taken from you."

The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't bring herself to say them. No, she definitely couldn't tell him. "I can't tell you right now. Please, just tell me you'll do a search for the Tahoe?"

This was ridiculous, if it was so important then she shouldn't have a problem telling him, but he knew that Kay wasn't someone to push. "Okay, I'll do it, but I want to know right away once you've regained whatever he took from you and I want details. Got it?"

Kay gave a sigh of relief. "Yeah, I got it. Just please hurry, I really don't know how much time we have."

* * *

Ames couldn't imagine what was taking the High Priest so long. He'd been waiting around for three hours now, and there hadn't been a sign of any familiars whatsoever. _Why are you still waiting around here? He probably has moved on by now to prepare for whatever he's going to do to Paige._ It surprised him how much it pained him to think about them hurting his daughter. He certainly hadn't wanted that child in the first place; in fact, he had expected to hate her. He knew that even Kay was struggling with those emotions as she neared the end of her pregnancy. Things did improve in a way during her later months. After they started using each other as a physical release, a lot of their pent up emotions seemed easier to handle. When there was something to enjoy, however wrong it may be, it took the edge off their miserable lives. And indeed, their lives were miserable. The only one who seemed to have been happy was Ray, but that was because he was too young to understand the torment his housemates were dealing with.

Up until the very end, Ames had even considered killing the baby after it was born. Until, of course, it occurred to him that it could be useful. The idea came upon him one day while he was at the law office, bored out of his mind. Once it was there, he knew this child would be of great value to him. Not emotionally, but in the same sense of value as currency. It would be a ticket back into the cult's good graces. When Paige was born, however, it changed him. He was prepared to take a blood sample and have it tested, but he wasn't prepared for how he bonded with the little girl when he cleaned her off right after Kay finished labor. The entire experience took him straight back to when Wendy had given birth to Ray. He had been in the hospital room, standing just behind the doctors as he watched his son come into the world. He had been the first to hold both his children, the mothers came in second. The difference with Paige was that instead of having a back row seat to her birth like he had with Ray, he was on the front lines. It wasn't pretty, he would never say it was an attractive process, but it was simply amazing. It had actually pained him to stick the needle into her arm, but he knew he had to do it. It was at that moment that he decided that even though he was going to take her to the cult, he wanted to be in charge of raising her. He would treat her no differently than he had always treated Ray, although of course when she became a teenager he was going to have to be much more aware of the fact that he was raising a young woman. That was a conversation he wasn't looking forward to.

Finally, Ames decided it was best to pick up Ray from his friend's house and move on. Even though he'd thought about it before, he also thought it would be a good idea to stick around just in case the priest came back. Now though, he wondered if the team that had been sent to kill him at his house would think to look for him here. With that in mind, he realized that he had wasted too much time here. It was time to take Ray and leave.

* * *

If Ben had thought the worst thing about a baby was changing diapers, he was dead wrong. Somehow her high-pitched shrieks had triggered another migraine, and it felt like someone was bashing his head in with a sledgehammer. It was impossible to just lie down and block out the world for hours at a time because he had to take care of Paige, but he was starting to think it might be a good idea to just drop her off somewhere now and forget about the familiars. As much as he wanted to have a chance at killing them all, he didn't think he could handle this baby. She might just kill him, literally.

When he finally had her settled in and sleeping with a full stomach and a clean diaper, he decided to take a walk. He knew it wouldn't make him feel any better, but he was sure the baby would sleep for a while. She was pretty good at sleeping for long stretches at a time, which he had gratefully discovered once he had the nurturing part taken care of. She was quickly adjusting to him, although she still put up a pretty good fight whenever he fed her the bottle with the formula. He was sure now that she must have been breastfed, but she would just have to get used to this. He wasn't exactly lactating at the moment.

__

Ahh, fresh air, he thought gratefully. The throbbing in his skull increased when the sounds of traffic reached his ears, but he had no choice but to endure it. He couldn't very well go back to that hotel room. Every time that blanket shifted even a little, Paige would wake up and start screaming, so burying his head under the blanket like usual wasn't even an option. Besides, the room was so stuffy that he knew it wasn't helping matters any.

Just as he turned a corner to walk around the block, a bike came flying out of nowhere and rammed straight into him. He went crashing to the ground, grunting as his head connected with the pavement. The rider landed just to his left with an "oof!" and remained motionless for a second, trying to catch her breath. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you coming," she groaned, pulling herself into a sitting position and rubbing her head. Then she turned to look down at him. "Alec? Where's your bike?"

Ben looked up to see the woman sitting next to him, staring down at him curiously. "Brin?" he gasped in surprise. Her gaze only became more curious.

"What? Did I walk in on you pulling another scam? Don't tell me you're selling anything illegal, that's the last thing you need to be doing right now."

What could he say? She thought he was Alec, and even though he wasn't sure he wanted her to think otherwise, she'd find out eventually when Alec didn't remember a moment of this incident. "No, I'm not selling anything illegal," he grumbled, sitting up next to her and holding his head gently in both hands. He couldn't believe how much it was killing him right now. He stumbled to his feet awkwardly, still clutching his head.

Brin watched him, confusion etched all over her face. "Hey, that's not what you were wearing this morning, is it?" She stood up to face him, looking into his eyes, which were now watering with pain. They were silent for a long time, but he knew she was contemplating what she probably thought was the impossible. "Ben?" she asked softly, staring at him disbelievingly.

What was the point in lying to her? It was too late now. "Yeah, it's me," he replied hesitantly, trying to smile but failing miserably. It didn't help matters much when she threw her arms around him, nearly knocking him over again.

"You're alive! How's that possible? Where have you been all this time?"

He nearly squeaked in pain when she finally released him and the blood that she'd been restricting in his neck shot up into his pounding head at top speed. "I've been recovering. It's a really long story, and I don't feel so good right now. I really need to get back to my room." Paige could scream until she turned blue for all he cared, he needed to get under a blanket and stay there.

"Yeah, you don't look so good," Brin said nervously, taking in his strained appearance. He teetered slightly as he walked away from her, so she rushed to him and grabbed his arm to steady him. "I think I'll walk you back to your room." They slowly made their way back to the Yum Yum Tree Hotel, Brin holding Ben up a lot of the time. When they made it to the door, she said, "Do you think you'll be okay now?"

Ben studied her for a moment, then finally admitted to himself that he needed help. He just couldn't handle Paige right now, and even though he knew Brin's parenting skills probably weren't much better than his own, he knew he would have to ask for her help. "Actually, I think there's something you might want to see." He opened the door and led the way over to the bed, pointing down at Paige's sleeping form. "It's kind of hard to explain how I came across her, but I really need some help. My head is killing me, and I can't handle it when she starts crying. Do you think you could stick around until my migraine goes away?"

Brin looked down at the sleeping infant in shock. "Sure, even though Normal will kill me. I'll have to call Zack and get him to cover for me somehow, but I think I'll be able to manage it. Just lay down and get some sleep, I'll take care of the baby."

Ben smiled gratefully and slid as gently as he could under the covers. Predictably, Paige started screaming again, but Brin picked her up and began to rock her back and forth, whispering soft words that he couldn't quite make out. Before long, the crying stopped and he felt the small shift in the bed as Brin settled the baby back into her nest. Now that he was already under the blanket and was pretty sure he wouldn't be moving, he doubted she would wake up for a while, but it was comforting to have someone there to help out, all the same.

* * *

A/N: Please read and review! It's always nice to know when someone's reading. 


	7. Time to Talk

Disclaimer: Kay and Paige. That's all I have to say. I wish Ben was mine, too, but oh well.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 6: Time to Talk

It was well past six when Ben finally woke up again, and during his surprisingly long nap, Brin had been thinking things over. How could he have possibly survived a gunshot wound to the head? Why didn't he come back before now? And what the hell was he doing with a baby? It didn't take long for the sneaking suspicion to enter her mind that he was killing again. What else could have kept him away? He loved his family, she knew that, but she also knew that his passion for killing tended to be stronger. She was sure he wouldn't have stuck around so long last time if it hadn't been for Kay. _Oh no, Kay!_ Did Ben know everything that had happened with her after his "death?" It was a lot to wonder about, but it wouldn't leave her mind the entire time she watched the baby. Paige only woke up once while she was on babysitting duty, and after changing her diaper the kid was good to go. The baby was the only thing that made absolutely no sense to her. She could make up possible excuses for everything else, but the baby was a mystery.

When Ben finally groaned and crawled out from under the covers, immediately awakening little Paige, it took him a moment to figure out why Brin and a baby were in the room with him. Once it all came back, he knew he'd be answering some questions. He was grateful that at least Brin waited until after he went into the bathroom to run some cold water over his face to wake himself up further. There was no point in being drowsy during an interrogation. As soon as he came back out, Brin started to ask her questions.

"What happened that day in Manticore?"

He sighed and sat down in a stiff armchair on the opposite side of the bed from Brin. "White didn't hit me straight on, he just blew off part of my skull. It turns out the Red who was with us that day, Chris, didn't die in Sandeman's office like I'm sure we all assumed. When he came down the stairs, he found me and realized I was still alive. He took me out of there before the building blew up, and he took care of me afterwards. He took me to a hospital that he knew would be discreet and they put a metal plate over the missing part of my skull until my bone regenerated. Chris had to take it off because we didn't want to have to explain to them that I could regrow bone like that, and then it was a while before the skin came back properly and my vision returned fully in my right eye. Chris died from the implant a few months ago, so I've been on my own ever since."

"Have you been killing again?"

He knew that question was coming, but he hadn't expected her to ask it so soon. "Sometimes, yeah. Don't get on my case about it, because I'm not really in the mood right now to defend myself to you. How have you been doing?"

"Fine. I'm working with Max at JamPony now, along with Zack, Jondy, and Alec. I'm living with Zack, and Max and Logan got that virus mess fixed up so they can be happy together. Jondy just gave us some surprising news today; it turns out she's pregnant. I actually found out last night because she was freaking out about how to tell Alec, but everyone else got to hear about it today."

__

Jondy's pregnant? I can't imagine Zack took that very well. "That's great, I'm sure she'll be a good mother. Now, when you say you're living with Zack, am I to take that to mean that you two are together romantically?"

She nodded, blushing at the astonishment on his face. "I know, it's a weird match, but it works for us. I think he's loosening up now that everyone knows about transgenics and we're not seen as such a threat anymore. As long as he doesn't have to do his protector act, he has the time to have a life. But don't think you can change the subject, I didn't plan to talk to you about my love life. I'm a little curious, how much do you know about everything that happened while you were gone?"

Ben looked down at his folded fingers in his lap. "I know everything that happened up until the big fight. I had Chris sneak into Terminal City and spy on you, and don't get upset because it wasn't so much you that I wanted him to check on, it was Kay. I wanted to know how she was doing. I know everything about her situation with White and what Zack did because of it. I also know that she organized the entire big fight by helping half of Terminal City escape and taking them to the stadium. I stopped watching over her after that."

Brin wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, but she asked anyway. "Why?"

"Because I confronted her at the fight. Chris took me there because I wasn't in very good shape yet, and I talked to her in the heat room. Suffice it to say that it didn't end well. I left and haven't seen or heard from her since. I assume White killed her though, because I saw him go back down the hall to where she was with his gun in his hand."

Brin stared at him in astonishment. Every now and then she wondered what had happened to Kay, but the thought that Kay was dead had never crossed her mind. "Are you sure? Did you hear the gunshot?"

"No, but Chris and I were out in the middle of the fighting before he had time to get to her. I thought you were upset with her?"

"Well yeah, but I never wished for her to die. We became so close on the farm after Wendy died, I just can't believe there's a possibility that she's gone too." The thing that hurt Brin the most, even more than the thought of losing another cherished friend, was the thought that Kay could have died believing that Brin hated her. She didn't think she could handle that.

* * *

Kay glanced anxiously at the clock, which told her that it wouldn't be long before Max came back. Max had gotten off work a few hours ago, and Kay was sure she would want to tell Logan what happened in Montana. Kay just didn't want to be here when she came back. Logan seemed oblivious to her anxiety, however, as he was completely immersed in calling his contacts and looking things up on his computer. He hadn't come across anything important yet, but to him that signified that the target hadn't changed vehicles just yet. He had been checking various towns along the interstate to see if they had reported any vehicles that had magically appeared out of nowhere, but he hadn't found anything so far. He was slowly making his way towards Seattle with his search, but he didn't know where he would go after that.

As he finally brought up the list of confiscated vehicles in Seattle, his eyes landed on the vehicle at the very top of the list, showing that it was the most recent addition. According to the report, a dark green Chevy Tahoe had been found abandoned in an alley in Chinatown. He immediately picked up the phone and dialed Matt Sung's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey Matt, it's Logan. Are you busy right now?"

"No, it's been a slow day for once. Did you need something?"

Now Logan had to come up with a reasonable excuse for why he was looking for the Tahoe. "Yeah, I have a contact who reported a murder yesterday, and I believe the murderer may have come through Seattle. A vehicle that matches the description of the getaway car was found in Chinatown, and since that area's under your jurisdiction, I was wondering if you could dust it for prints? Right now it's at the junkyard right around the corner from your station, so it shouldn't take you long. Do you think you could do that?"

"Sure, but I've got to warn you, we've been hit with a serious computer virus here, so it will take a while before I can run the fingerprints through the database and look for a match. Plus our area has been having brownouts every other hour it seems like, so I really don't know how long it will take."

"Well, if it starts to become too much trouble, I'll just drop by and pick up the prints and take them to another station where everything's running smoothly. Don't take that as an insult, it's just that I'd like this done as quickly as possible. I believe this may be a serial killer that we have on our hands here, so it's top priority for me at the moment."

When he hung up, Kay placed her hands on her hips and looked at him eagerly. "Well? Did you find something?"

"A Chevy Tahoe was dumped in Chinatown, and I think there's a good chance that it's the right one. As far as I can see, though, there have been no reports of a stolen vehicle around there."

"Well, either this guy could be staying in that area, or he could have called a cab to take him somewhere. Could you check the taxi records?"

"Sure, but this could take a minute. Maybe if Matt has some more free time on his hands, I could ask him to go around the inns in Chinatown and ask if a man with light brown hair came in at a strange hour of the morning. They don't have any computer systems for me to hack into, so it's a lot of footwork."

"Why don't you let me do that part? I can ask around easily enough."

Logan shook his head firmly. "No, you can't do that. I'm sure this guy knows about you, and if he sees you coming, he'll be long gone. It's better to have Matt handle it, he won't look quite as suspicious. If you really feel the need to do something, I suggest you call anyone else who was involved in your situation and see if they know more than you do. You'll have to make the call short and block your number from any caller ID they might have, because I don't think it's in your best interest to let them know where you are, but maybe you'll be able to find out if they know anything about our target. You never know, they might have an exact description of the target, maybe even a name."

Kay nodded, that was a really good idea. "Could I borrow your phone?" He gestured to the phone that was barely visible on the counter in the kitchen. When she was satisfied that he wouldn't be able to trace her, she finally pushed in Ames's cell phone number.

"Who is this and why is your number blocked?" came the answering growl on the other end of the line.

"Really friendly, Ames, you sure have a way with words. I don't think I need to tell you what I'm calling about."

__

No, you don't. He'd picked up Ray a few hours ago. Now he and Ray were at a motel in Kalispell, and he had knocked out his neighbor so that he could take his laptop and get online to try and track the priest down. He couldn't believe the way he'd been stabbed in the back. _Slow down now, don't you think killing Thula and disposing of her body might be counted as backstabbing too?_ Of course, the Conclave didn't even know about that part. "Please, I think you could have figured out for yourself that I don't know where Paige is. Would I have been running through the woods if I was in on this?"

"I never said I thought you were. I want to know about who took Paige." She made sure to talk quietly so Logan couldn't hear anything.

"Jennifer was just another familiar, but I'm sure they've got her hidden now."

"I doubt it, unless they think hiding a body is really that important."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. That woman's body was in the trunk of her own car in a gas station in Lakeside. I want to know about the man that killed her. He's the one who has Paige now."

"I have no idea who he is, but if he killed Jennifer, then he's not a familiar. With the way he ran, I'm guessing he was a transgenic."

__

A transgenic? Other than Max and I, why would another transgenic have been there? "Are you sure? I don't see any reason why a transgenic would be there."

"I don't know, maybe he heard about what they were planning to do and thought he'd join the fun. It doesn't really matter to me, I'm more concerned about what will happen when the Conclave eventually gets their hands on Paige, which believe me, I'm sure they will."

"You were planning on handing her over to them anyway, so why do you care what they were planning to do to her?"

"I had a deal set up with the Conclave that if I gave them Paige, they would ignore her genetic background and raise her like they would any other familiar child. I was supposed to be brought back into the cult, and when Paige was old enough we would set off the Coming like planned. The fact that the Conclave sent a team in to take Paige when it was supposed to be my job tells me that they didn't plan on holding up their end of the bargain, but they still wanted Paige. She's part transgenic, so if they aren't planning on sticking to our agreement, do you really think they would bother raising her like one of my people? As far as they're concerned, she's a means to an end, and they'll get to that end however they feel like it."

Kay was horrified at the thought. Did that mean they would kill Paige? Now it was almost a relief that she was taken by that man, at least she wasn't in imminent danger of death. Not that she knew of, anyway. She hung up the phone before Ames could scare her any more with his dark thoughts about the Conclave's plans. She didn't want to think about any of that. Her top priority was to get Logan set straight on his search. He looked up as she approached, his fingers poised above the keyboard as though she had interrupted him in mid-stroke. "I assumed the man was a familiar, but it sounds like I may have been wrong. I think he's actually a transgenic." Her mind was still reeling after her conversation with Ames. He must have assumed that she knew everything, because he had mentioned the Coming. That had never occurred to her before. Just because the virus wasn't active in her didn't mean that she couldn't pass it on to her offspring. After Logan promised to start searching right away, she decided it was probably best if she headed back to Bling's place. After all, Max could come back at any time.

* * *

Ames glared at the screen of the laptop. It wasn't the computer's fault that he was angry, it was his own. For some reason, he couldn't remember the High Priest's name. Of course, he was used to thinking of the other man as the High Priest, and he'd been in that role for all of Ames's years in the cult. His appearance was deceiving, but he was actually Ames's senior by twenty-five years. Unfortunately, spending so much time thinking of a man as his title tended to make his real name fade into distant memory. He knew he'd heard the name before, but it must have been a long time ago. _It's something old-fashioned, it's not very common anymore. I think it started with an A. Abraham? No, that wasn't it. Albert? Huh-uh. I'm sure it started with an A and an L. Wait, Alistair!_ The name came out of nowhere, but as soon as he thought of it a grin spread across his face. It wouldn't be too difficult to search for someone by the name of Alistair. He didn't remember the man's last name either, but he'd remember it if he saw it.

It didn't even take two minutes of searching before he saw the right name. Alistair Bougeman. That was him all right. A few clicks later and he had a phone number, although if it was a home phone then he might not get an answer. He grabbed his phone and glanced over to make sure that Ray was preoccupied with some toys, then dialed the number. It rang a few times, but then he heard someone answer it.

"Hello?" That voice was easily recognizable. Apparently this was a cell phone number.

"Fen'os tol. Tell me what you thought you were doing today."

Alistair smiled with amusement. Ames was persistent, he'd give him that. "Fen'os tol. I thought I was retrieving my key."

"You know damn well that I was going to bring her to you, so I have to assume that since you tried to stop me from doing my half of the deal, then you weren't planning on doing the other half. What were you planning on doing to my daughter?"

"Honestly, drain her of every last drop of blood in her body, but that doesn't matter at the moment. It's not like anyone has any idea where the girl is, and she's our last hope."

Ames sat there for a moment, then something entirely new crossed his mind. "No, she's not. As long as the mother is alive, our hope isn't gone. The girl is of no importance to us if we can recapture X5-358. You could even take a leaf out of my father's book and implant several of her fertilized eggs into surrogates. Then you'd have more than enough blood to start a hundred Comings. If you fertilized her eggs with the sperm of a second class familiar, the offspring would be even more potent that my daughter's. After all, my daughter is part anti-key. It wouldn't take much for the virus in her to be neutralized as well."

Alistair could hardly believe this stroke of genius. As much as he despised the scientific way of doing things, it didn't make much difference to him as long as he got what he wanted. "The idea has promise, but we have no more idea of where the mother is than the child. I don't care which one I get first, as long as our goals are achieved. If you can bring me either one of them before my men do, I will keep my promise to you and bring you back into our culture. On that you have my word." He hung up the phone feeling very pleased with himself. Ames had given him another option for how to bring about the Coming, and if his own men could find either the X5 or the child first, then he wouldn't have to bother with that traitor anymore either.

Unfortunately for him, Ames already had a guess for where Kay could be. He knew she was dead set against going back and seeing her old friends in Seattle, but something told him that she might change her mind in this situation. She would never tell them about her daughter, but she might be able to convince them to help her. It at least gave him a place to start looking. He knew now that his only option was to hand Kay over to the cult. Giving up Paige would be hard for him at this point, but Kay? He could do it in a heartbeat.

* * *

Max was practically bursting with the need to tell Logan everything by the time she was off work, but everyone was going to Crash to celebrate Jondy's pregnancy, and she knew it would be rude to miss that. Jondy appeared to be uncomfortable with all the attention, especially when everyone made a big deal about the fact that she couldn't drink alcohol. Everyone knew that Jondy wasn't stupid enough to drink while she was pregnant, but they insisted on making a fuss about its importance. Sketchy seemed to think it was funny every time he took a large swig of beer in front of her. He'd make a ridiculous apology, always making sure to refer to the fact that if she followed his lead, her child would turn out like him. _That's enough to scare anyone into giving up beer._ When it finally seemed to be an appropriate time to leave, she made up a quick excuse about desperately needing gas for her motorcycle and wanting to get it before the gas truck left for the night, and then she got out of there and headed for Logan's as fast as she could.

He looked up in surprise when she came charging into his living room, obviously dying to say something but unsure about where to start. "Hello to you, too. Sit down before you have a heart attack. I take it this has something to do with your trip to Montana?"

She nodded quickly, and then words began to pour out of her mouth at an alarming rate, jumbling into each other as she spoke. "For some reason, when I first showed up I could see White walking all over the place in the woods outside his house with a bunch of guys following him, but I don't think he knew about them, then I went into the house to wait, but I heard this baby crying and suddenly there was this huge chase in the woods with some woman carrying the baby and White and all his stalkers and another woman that came out of nowhere, and I'm not sure but I think there was one extra guy that I hadn't noticed before because I don't think he was in the group following White, but he was really fast, I mean he passed everybody except for the woman with the baby, then the other woman was behind him but way too far behind to ever catch up to them before they reached the highway, but I didn't get to see how it ended because White and I got into a fight, but I'm pretty sure it was the woman with the baby and the man behind her who made it away, because when I looked up I saw that other woman fighting with the guys who had been following White and she really kicked their asses, then she jumped onto the back of a truck and got away." She was breathing really hard by the time she finished talking, and Logan thought that if that had continued much longer, he would have gotten a headache.

"That has to be the longest run-on sentence I've ever heard in my life, but I think I caught most of it. Do you have any idea what it was all about?"

"No, that's why I wanted to tell you, but you were still asleep by the time I had to go to work and I didn't think it was right to wake you up. I'm not quite done yet, I've got some other stuff to tell you."

"I recommend taking a deep breath before you start again, because I think otherwise you might hyperventilate," he joked.

She rolled her eyes at him and started talking as though she hadn't heard him. "Well, then I finally got to talk to White, but he was really distracted so I think it caught him off guard when I asked him about Kay. He said the last time he saw her was when we both spotted her first coming into the stadium. Apparently by the time he went into the room where she and Thula had been, Thula was dead and Kay was already gone."

Logan frowned as he matched the story to Kay's. Either one of them was lying, or they both were. His thoughts led perfectly into her next question. "Then I watched that video clip on your computer last night from the big fight. I know you tried to cross it out, but do you think that Kay and White left the stadium together?"

"I'm pretty sure they did. That doesn't mean they stuck together long afterwards, but I'm sure they left together. I don't know why White would lie to you, but I'm almost positive what he told you wasn't the truth."

Max was almost disappointed. For how eager she had been to tell Logan everything, it hadn't gotten her very far and she couldn't help feeling that it was a little anticlimactic. "Do you have any ideas about that baby? It seemed to be a big deal for everyone."

"No, not yet, but maybe it has something to do with whatever White bought from Lethil & Prowdovet. I don't know exactly what, but those are two very suspicious occurrences that happened within a very short period of time, all revolving around White. I don't think the timing is a coincidence, and the same goes for White's involvement. We just have to figure out why this baby is so important. I really think that's the key factor in all of this." In the future, when he looked back on that sentence, his reactions varied from seriously considering hitting himself to cracking up laughing. "You know, I haven't had supper yet. Are you hungry?"

Max chuckled and flopped out on the couch. "Nah, I'm too drunk to really feel like eating right now. I had to go to Crash because everyone was throwing a celebration for Jondy. It turns out she's going to have a baby. Isn't that cool?"

Logan grinned at her, incredibly amused at seeing Max this intoxicated. "Yeah, that's cool. I'm happy for her. So, why are you drunk?"

"I was getting really antsy waiting to come see you and tell you everything, so I drank a _lot_ to pass the time. It's been a long time since I got so trashed."

Feeling his appetite slowly fade into the background, he stood up and walked over so that he towered above her. "So, are you telling me that you're vulnerable?"

Max laughed and sat up, hugging him lightly around the middle and staring up at him from where her chin was resting against his stomach. "Don't tell me the great Logan Cale is thinking about taking advantage of a poor little drunk girl?"

He reached down and pulled her up playfully by the arm so she was standing with him. "One, you're no poor little drunk girl. Two, it's hardly taking advantage when the subject is willing." With that, he swept her up into his arms and headed for the bedroom, ready to have a little normalcy in his day.

* * *

A/N: Please review! You guys are awesome! :) 


	8. Blackout

Disclaimer: Dark Angel isn't mine, but Kay and Paige are. That works for me.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 7: Blackout

After a restless night of tossing and turning without getting any sleep whatsoever, Kay found herself bouncing on the balls of her feet outside Logan's house, waiting for Max to leave. She was already running late, but thankfully Logan had been on the computer the entire time Kay was standing outside, which was around a half hour. She hoped he had been on earlier, but even so it didn't look like he'd found much. When Max finally gave Logan a kiss goodbye and walked out to her motorcycle, Kay rushed into the house and stood by the entrance to the living room, watching him work. It took him nearly a minute to realize she was standing there, and he nearly fell out of his chair in shock. "I hate it when you guys do that," he grumbled, taking a deep breath and leaning back in his chair.

"Have you found out anything else?"

He shook his head. "There's not much left that I can find out for the moment. It's not like asking around for a male normal-looking transgenic that has light brown hair is going to narrow it down much. We don't even know if he's X series or psy-ops, and you don't even know how tall he is. For now I can't do much more than wait around for Matt to find a match for the fingerprints."

"How do you know he found fingerprints at all?"

"He would have called me if he hadn't. Since I haven't heard from him, I have to assume that he's working on finding a match. I've been keeping track of any brownouts in Matt's area. They've been pretty frequent lately, and they're starting to pop up in other sectors, but I think he should be able to get the job done today. Hopefully by the end of the day we'll have a name."

Kay sat down on the couch, fiddling impatiently with the bracelet Ben had given her so long ago. She didn't really know why she wore it anymore, but it had become habit to put it on in the morning. "You and Max seem to be doing well. Have you thought at all about getting married?"

"Well, we take it one day at a time, so we haven't exactly talked about our future. Besides, we don't know if it will be legal. Max is a known X5, just because they're not being grouped together and killed doesn't mean they've been given the right to marry. I don't think having the title is so important, frankly. I was married before and it didn't end up being worth much. We can still have a family someday without being married. It's just like Jondy, she's pregnant right now and she's not married to Alec. As long as I'm with Max, I really don't care if the world sees us as married or not." By the time he had finished, Logan was surprised he had said so much. Did he say that last part to convince Kay, or himself?

"As long as you guys are happy together. Is everyone else as happy?" She had to hold her contempt out of the last question. Her anger for Zack, although it wasn't her main concern at the moment, hadn't faded. She still felt betrayal every time she thought about that heat cycle. Then she felt jealous of Jondy, because she was in love with the father of her baby. Kay's situation had been much less enjoyable.

"Yeah, surprisingly. As far as love goes, anyway. I know Joshua gets pretty lonely because he doesn't really have many friends in Terminal City. With Mole, Luke, and Dix dead, he doesn't have anyone else to really talk to every day. Max and Alec visit him sometimes, and I know Original Cindy makes a point of seeing him at least once a week, but I'm sure that's not enough for him. People are still leery of him and the other freaks though. It just makes them uncomfortable. At least Joshua can come over to see us once in a while without worrying about being arrested. As he puts it, he doesn't always have to stay in the basement anymore."

"You know, maybe I'll go see him after our search is over. I wasn't extremely close to him before, but I had some fun with him." Actually, now that she thought about it, he had been a pretty good friend to her between the times of the escape from Terminal City and the fight. She even remembered him offering to let her hit him when she was taking her frustration out on Sate. "Hey, do you ever know what happened to that telekinetic familiar that everybody thought was a psy-ops?"

"The one that you were on TV with along with the X2s?"

"Yeah."

"I never found out for sure, but I think he's dead. Max said she saw the X2s tearing him apart at the fight while he was holding me hostage. Don't ask, it's a long story. How well did you know the guy?"

"Not very well. I thought he was the leader of the psy-ops, just like everybody else, and he was a big part of my plan to get everyone out. We only talked a few times, then I found out what he was and I exposed him on live TV with the X2s. The last time I saw him, he was chained up in the basement of Foggle Towers."

Logan frowned, thinking back to that time. "Wasn't Mole the one who was so gung-ho about escaping before he died? How did you get involved in that?"

"Actually, Mole and I switched jobs. You see, I was planning on forcing the cult to start the Coming so I would have a better shot at getting Thula, but Mole wanted me to help him with the escape. I thought it would beneficial to my cause to have a lot of transgenics outside Terminal City. Because of how much I would have to focus on that part, I let Mole handle urging the cult into starting the Coming. I found out from White that the cult was waiting for all the children to survive the initiation in a year before they started it, and that the only one who had 'died' that year was Ray. Well, I knew that wasn't true, so I gave Mole the task of making sure they found out he was alive. He took the job in a whole different direction than I had intended, though. He found out that White was being kept in Terminal City, so he took both of them to the top of the Seattle Times Building. He was planning on throwing Ray off the top and then letting White go. When I found out what he was going to do, I got over there and climbed up so I was just below them and I caught Ray. I guess seeing Ray get dropped off the top of a building gave White some adrenaline, because he broke free and knocked Mole over the edge of the roof. Then I had to take care of the entire escape. I was really only supposed to get it started, Mole would handle the rest, but obviously that didn't happen."

"Wow, these past several months must have been pretty relaxing after everything you had going on then."

She smiled with him, but at the same time found herself thinking, _Actually, compared to the past several months, back then was fun._

* * *

Zack watched Brin move around the kitchen, throwing together a late breakfast because of how much she had slept in. She hadn't offered him any explanation for why he had needed to cover her shifts for the rest of the day, and it had nearly been dark out by the time she came home. He had spent the rest of the evening fruitlessly trying to find out where she'd been, but she somehow managed to avoid answering him all night. Whatever she had been doing, it had left her with a lot to think about, because Zack knew she had lain awake on her back for most of the night, staring at the ceiling and thinking about things she refused to share with him. She had finally fallen asleep near dawn, which explained why she had slept in so late. Even though she was doing everything she normally did, he noticed that she seemed completely distracted. He thought his eggs were slightly burnt around the edges, but he didn't comment on it.

It wasn't until she spent nearly an hour of walking around with her shirt on backwards that he knew he would have to say something. "Are you ever going to tell me what happened last night? You missed Jondy's celebration party, so it must have been something big."

Brin looked up at him in surprise. "She had a party? How come no one told me?"

"Because you weren't there to tell. Now, tell me what you were doing last night." It was pretty obvious that wasn't a request, it was a command. He said every word slowly and carefully, as if to make sure that she couldn't misunderstand him.

__

Well, Ben never told me to keep quiet about him being back. As long as I don't make a big deal about it and get everyone involved, I don't see why I can't just tell Zack. "Ok, I know this is going to come as a shock, but I was with Ben."

Zack choked on his glass of orange juice, barely managing to keep it from spraying out of his mouth in shock. "_Ben?_"

Brin took a step back, well out of the firing range in case some juice managed to escape. "Yeah, he's staying at a hotel right now. I ran him over with my bike, otherwise I don't know if we would ever have found out about him being here. He obviously wasn't expecting to see me, but we talked for quite a while. The reason I was there so long was because he had a migraine, and for some reason he picked up this baby from somewhere and its crying was really hurting his head, so I stayed there to take care of the baby while he tried to sleep it off. We talked after he woke up. I guess White didn't manage to shoot him directly, he just blew off a good chunk of his skull. It took him a long time to heal, but the migraines must be some kind of side effect. He'll probably never get over them."

"How much does he know about everything that happened while he was gone?"

"Pretty much everything. He knows all about Kay, he even talked to her at the fight, and I told him about Jondy being pregnant. I don't think there's anything important that he's missing."

"No, but there's something _I'm_ missing. If he was healthy enough to talk to Kay at the fight eight months ago, then why didn't he come back before now?" He figured he already knew the answer to that.

"He's killing again. I don't know how often, but he admitted he's doing it again."

Zack's brow furrowed as he grabbed his signature clipboard and the paper bag with his sandwich for lunch, set down his glass of orange juice, and they headed for the door. Apparently he would have to see Ben after work.

* * *

With the exception of people still occasionally congratulating Jondy, Max's day started out as normally as could be. Normal gave her a few sharp bip-bip-bips when she walked in late, Original Cindy gave her a quick play-by-play of her date last night with some extremely exotic Mexican woman, Alec made a bet with Sketchy that he could persuade Mrs. McKinson, a sex addict who often received several packages a day that Max had no desire to know the contents of, to give him a bigger tip than Sketchy, and Jondy and Brin started talking about the weather. One thing they never seemed to be able to adjust to was the amount of rain in Seattle. Brin always complained about it making her depressed. After this point, however, Max's day started to go downhill at a terrifying speed.

First, it wasn't just raining in Seattle, it was storming like it was the end of the world. Max found herself walking a lot of the time, otherwise the wind would knock her right over while she was on her bike. She lost two packages, her clipboard, and her favorite hat to the wind. By lunchtime, the storm was almost nothing compared to her mood. To make matters worse, her favorite outdoor diner was closed due to the storm. Her only choice was to sit around JamPony and beg food off anyone who was willing. She didn't get much more than a chip here and there until Zack took pity on her and ripped his sandwich in half for her. In return, though, she made a run for him while she was still on her lunch break, giving him an extra fifteen minutes of lunchtime. When she finally decided that today couldn't be more dismal, today decided to prove her wrong.

Max, Zack, Alec, and Original Cindy stuck together as they all made runs to the other side of town. They had deliberately taken packages for the industrial portion of town so they would have an excuse to dawdle in the buildings and stay out of the downpour outside. They were riding up the elevator in the Seattle Surveillance Tower, enjoying the fact that the elevator was located in a corner of the building and was made out of the same special glass as the outside of the building so they could watch the storm, when it happened. As though someone had flipped a switch, the elevator lurched to a sudden stop and the lights all went out. It wasn't just in their building either, but everything went dark for as far as they could see.

"Damn, I've never seen a brownout like this," Cindy commented wondrously, staring out at the pitch-black city, brightened only by the frequent flashes of lightning. Max hadn't seen anything like this in a long time. Usually just one or a small group of sectors went out, but there wasn't even a hint of a glow in the distance, and they were nearly fifty stories high. It looked like the entire city was out. It had been a few years since this had happened, which was shortly after she had first come to Seattle, and it had put the city out of commission for over three weeks. A power outage of this magnitude was difficult to deal with, especially with the poor resources available to them. She could even see a few hoverdrones simply sitting on the ground below, rocking in the wind. With their command centers out of power, they were inoperable. It was a safety feature placed on them so that they wouldn't run amuck. The last thing anyone needed during a blackout was for a hoverdrone to come crashing through their living room window.

Alec settled himself down on the floor while Zack dug his fingers between the doors. They opened slightly, but before he could open it any more an arm shot in by his feet, scrabbling around. "Please help me, I'm afraid of the dark!" came a woman's pleading voice. He could hear other panicked voices behind her, all wanting to know what was going on and why they couldn't even see light in the distance. If they had been here for the last time it happened, they already knew how long it was going to take. Unsure of what to do, Zack kicked the woman's hand back out and dragged the doors shut again, which was considerably harder than opening them. When he was done, he surprisingly dropped down onto the floor next to Alec. "I think we should wait until things have calmed down. It's not like we'll miss much."

Original Cindy and Max also lowered themselves to the ground, staring out blankly at the raging storm outside. "Anybody want to play Spin the Bottle?" Alec asked playfully. At the foul look he received from everyone, especially Cindy, he shrugged and grinned at them all. "It was just a suggestion. It's not like we could play anyway, I don't have a bottle on me."

Max rolled her eyes and watched as one lightning strike split up into practically ten different bolts and branched out across the sky. Silence reigned for a short time, then Alec broke in again. "You know, we could at least talk about something interesting. Does anyone want to hear what the latest adventures of Mrs. McKinson are?"

Zack scowled at him. "For someone who has a pregnant girlfriend at home, you sure seem interested in everything lewd that involves other women. First you want to play Spin the Bottle, then you want to talk about a sex addict's latest exploits?"

Alec held up both hands in surrender. "Hey, it's just talk. As much as you don't like me, you've gotta at least believe that I wouldn't cheat on Jondy. I was just trying to pass the time, and I can't help it if that's my sense of humor."

Talking loudly so as to override the two men, Original Cindy asked, "So Max, what have you been up to lately?"

The two male X5s stopped glaring at each other and looked determinedly at Max, as if hoping she would be able to keep them entertained better than their fight. Well, she did have a story that would distract them for a little while. "I made a run out to Montana to talk to Ames White," she declared, studying her nails as though this was the most normal thing to say in the world. Everyone gaped at her in disbelief. Before they could say anything, she continued, "I needed to ask him a few questions, and Logan had just found out where he was living. When I got there though, it looked like he was having plenty of fun before I arrived. He was walking through the woods with a bunch of familiars tailing him. Then they started chasing this woman with a baby through the woods. The woman with the baby and some man that I could swear wasn't there before jumped into the getaway car, and this other woman that also showed up out of nowhere beat up the other three familiars and jumped onto a truck to escape. I wish White and I hadn't gotten into a fight, 'cause then I would have been close enough to get a look at everybody."

While Alec and Cindy shook their heads in disbelief, Zack's mind focused on the one part of the story that really stuck out for him. A baby? Taken by a man that wasn't with the other familiars? Was it just a coincidence that Ben had a baby right now? "Did you get a look at the people that got away with the baby?"

"Well, the woman had black hair, I could see that easily enough, but it was harder to tell with the guy because of the way he was moving. I don't know, he might have been transgenic because he was really fast. I think he had brown hair, but it wasn't dark. I don't know, maybe more of a tan color?"

__

If that's Ben, what in the world has he gotten himself involved in? Now he really needed to go see Ben after they were out of here.

* * *

After Paige spent most of the morning sleeping, she seemed to decide that she wanted to stay awake as the afternoon began to wear on. She wasn't hungry, she didn't need to be changed, and Ben had even taken on the task of giving her a bath. It was quick, but it got the job done. Now he was sitting on the bed, watching the baby stare at her surroundings in wonder. She had beautiful little blue eyes that struck a chord with him, but he didn't know why. If he held something shiny in front of her face, her eyes would light up and her tiny hand would reach out for it. Even though he was sure she was still a very young baby, she seemed to be developing quickly. It wasn't anything physical, it was clear that she was still an infant if you looked at her, but somehow she struck him as very smart. He knew she had to be either a familiar or a transgenic.

"You know, you're not so bad once you've stopped squealing," he cracked dryly, dangling his watch in front of her and reflecting the light from the ceiling down onto her face. He had been taking care of her for about thirty-six hours now, and that seemed to be enough for her to adjust to him. She even drank from the bottle earlier without complaint. Suddenly, the overhead light went out. He stood up and walked to the window, gazing out at the blustery weather outside. Even from his point of view, it was pretty obvious that the electricity was out all over the city. He headed back to the bed, amazed that the crashing of thunder outside wasn't disturbing the little girl. If anything, it seemed to excite her every time light swept over the ceiling in unison with the lightning strikes outside. He sat down on the bed next to her and watched as she immediately searched for the source of the disturbance on the bed. "You're smart for your age, I'll give you that."

When his back started to tire of remaining straight up when he could see such a soft bed before him, he stretched out on his stomach facing Paige and rested his chin in his hand. "To tell you the truth, I used to think about having one of you," he confided quietly. "A long time ago, when I was really happy, I wondered what it would be like to have a baby. That was when I was with Kay. I think you would have liked her, she had a way with kids, even if she never noticed it. We never talked about having kids, but I always hoped that some day in the future we'd be able to really settle down and have a family. Of course, even if she was good with kids, Kay never really was the family type. Maybe it had to do with her own childhood and the fact that we were like a family but always kept her out of that. I couldn't picture her with a baby in her arms, no matter how hard I tried. I still can't, actually, not that it matters. She's not alive to give it a shot."

As he spoke, Paige watched his face intently, as though she understood every word he was saying. _Hey, maybe I just have a good storytelling voice._ It was while she was staring at him that he realized what her eyes had sparked in him. "Your eyes are just like Kay's. I usually like really dark brown eyes, like Max's, because they look like deep pools that go on forever, but Kay's eyes were oceans. I never thought that blue eyes could look like that, but hers really seemed never-ending, just like yours. I always wondered about what would have happened if White had never gone back to that room and Kay and I crossed paths after the fight. We said a lot of things in anger that night, but I don't know how much of it we meant. I had built up a lot of anger towards her because of everything she'd been up to while I was gone, but I know I overreacted. I remember when we first slept together — sorry if this topic is a little too mature for you —" he held up both hands apologetically, "and what led up to it. I think the reason she was driven to me was because she was in a state of shock after that psy-ops kid died. The same thing probably happened with White, but it was more extreme because I wasn't someone she had just met that day, I was the guy she loved. At least, I thought I was until she made it sound like her feelings for me weren't as strong as I thought they were on the night of the fight. I knew she didn't have feelings for him, though, no matter what she felt for me. I wish I had been around to explain how she operates to Zack, because throwing her with White was the worst possible thing he could have done. Taking advantage of her heat cycle like that, even though he hadn't done it himself, probably made her think of the way Lydecker had taken advantage of her. I think the pain from that ran deeper than she would ever admit. She seemed to rebound from that pretty fast, though," he commented bitterly.

He reached out and helped Paige roll onto her side, which she had been struggling desperately to do. Once she was comfortable, her tiny eyes remained perfectly round as she listened to him raptly. _I've gone nuts, I'm talking to a baby and explaining things to her like she's an adult. Of course, it's not like I have anyone else to talk to, and she's not going to tell anybody._ "Anyways, I know she only confronted the X2s to expose that familiar, even though I don't really like it. She could have done it in so many different ways, but she chose that one. She blew up at me at the fight because of the way I accused her of everything. A lot of what she said was true; we didn't really know each other, we had just imagined the other person to be something they weren't, but I don't think that was all a lie. We were actually becoming the people we wanted each other to be, but it got cut short before we could change completely. She said it wouldn't have worked out between us anyway, but I don't think so. If we had been together longer and got the chance to really change, I think we would have been happy together. Maybe we would have had a few like you, who knows? It's too late now though. Even if she weren't dead, it was pretty obvious that she changed drastically after I wasn't around. Everything about her the last time I talked to her was completely different. I wasn't even looking at the same person I had known before." Paige's eyelids were finally starting to droop, so he lifted her up and settled her back into her pillow nest. "You know, maybe if you keep all that crying to a minimum and I don't get any more migraines, I'll hold onto you until I've taken care of those familiars. Then I'm sure you have someone out there still waiting to take you in."

* * *

When the lights went out, Kay ran straight out into the street to see if there were lights in the distance. Just her luck, she couldn't see a thing. All of Seattle was dark. She was drenched by the time she went back into Logan's house, where she had spent a lot of the day just to keep herself distracted. Bling had come over, so she listened to what they were saying while she tried to keep her mind off what could possibly be happening to Paige right now. Just the thought that her daughter could be in pain made her stomach knot up in fear. Now she didn't know how long it would take to find her. Matt hadn't called yet, which she took as a sign that he hadn't run the fingerprints through the database yet. If he hadn't gotten a chance to do it before the electricity went out, what would they do? How long would this blackout last?

Bling headed for the bathroom to get her a towel when she came back in. Logan looked up at her from where he was sitting. "Any light out there?"

She shook her head, sending droplets of water flying all over the room. "No, not as far as I could see. I think this is an actual blackout, because it looks like it hit the whole city. Do you think it will take long before the power's back on?"

Logan wiped off his cheek where some of the water in her hair had flown. "This happened about four years ago, and frankly, it took a few weeks before things were up and running again. The good news is that I don't think our target has left the city, and the sectors will be completely shut down. Nobody will be able to move from one sector to another, much less leave Seattle. Walkie-talkies should still be in use, and my police scanner can be battery-powered so I will know right away if someone manages to break through. As long as Matt has those fingerprints, we should be able to pick up right where we left off when the power comes back on."

Kay paced across the living room, hardly aware of the water trail she was leaving on the floor. Bling came back out with the towel and gave it to her, but for a long time she didn't do anything more than hold it. "Max has some clothes here if you want to get out of those," Logan pointed out, gesturing towards his bedroom.

As though she hadn't heard him, Kay said, "I just don't like that this is going to take so long. How can we know for sure that he's still in Seattle? For all we know, he could be in Canada, and while Seattle's in a blackout he could be getting farther and farther away as we speak. Isn't there anything we can do?"

Logan sighed and shook his head. "No, short of talking to the others and getting them to help us on an old-fashioned foot search, we're stuck."

"Well, involving the others isn't an option." She headed back to Logan's bedroom, noticing that Max had an entire drawer to herself. Apparently she didn't live here full time. _I guess we really are stuck. The only thing we can do now is sit and wait. But what about the other familiars? While we sit and wait, they could swarm right into town and start looking for Paige on their own._ That was something that she didn't even want to consider.

* * *

Ames sat quietly on a tree stump just outside the city limits of Seattle. Enough brush surrounded him so that no one could see him, but he could see them. As much as he would have liked to take the credit for his current position, he knew it wasn't anything more than dumb luck. He had been about to sneak through the checkpoint when he heard people walking through the trees. It turned out to be five familiars, none of whom had spotted him. After finding a decent enough hiding place, he watched as they walked right up to the checkpoint while still out of sight of the sector police inside, then one of them crept inside and easily snapped the necks of all the police. They probably didn't even have a chance to press an alarm before they were all a pile on the floor. When all five familiars were through the checkpoint, Ames stepped silently out of his hiding place and jogged after them. He couldn't imagine how difficult this would be if he had Ray with him, but he had left his son in Kalispell with an older woman he had worked with. She loved kids, so he knew that Ray would be safe there.

It didn't take much to figure out what this team of familiars was meant to do. He was sure the other team that came after him in Montana was meant to get Paige, so this new group must be meant to catch Kay. _Good luck, you don't know nearly as much about her as I do._ Once he was through the checkpoint, he started the long walk to his old house. There was no point starting a search in this weather, and he needed a place to get charged up and ready for the task ahead of him. Finding Kay while avoiding those familiars and the transgenics was going to be no easy task.

* * *

Author's Note: Please read and review! It's nice to know when people are reading. :) 


	9. Tell Me a Story

Disclaimer: This is getting old. Everyone knows who I own and who I don't.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 8: Tell Me a Story

A week of darkness wasn't the best way to improve your mood, as Zack was quickly discovering. Many people couldn't even call in their packages, so business at JamPony was ridiculously slow and everyone's income was suffering from it. Only messengers were allowed to move between sectors, so at least the line was short, but it was so dreary wherever they went. The only light came from candles lit inside houses and apartments, or the trashcan fires of the homeless outside. The only positive outcome of the blackout was that Ben was trapped. Zack knew that if it weren't for that, he would have been long gone.

__

He didn't even bother to say hello, he simply started right in on his business once he had stepped into Ben's hotel room. "Please tell me you didn't get that baby from Montana."

Ben rolled his eyes and walked over to where Paige was now crying at the intrusion. "So what if I did? Is it important? By the way, nice to see you too."

"Was White involved?"

With Paige now curling up comfortably in his arms, Ben shrugged noncommittally. "I can't really remember if he was there or not. I don't even remember if any familiars were there at all, much less White."

Zack crossed his arms angrily. "Did you or did you not take that baby from a group of people who may or may not have been familiars who were running through the woods after it?"

"Yes."

"Did this occur near Lakeside, Montana?"

"I believe I may have passed through a town by that name."

"Did you see Max there?"

Well, that explained everything. Max had told him about what had happened. "Yeah, I saw her. What does that have to do with anything?"

Zack stared at the baby, who looked quite content with Ben holding her. "I need to know what your reasoning was for taking a familiar baby. There were other people around that could have taken her, as they were obviously trying to do, so what possessed you to join in that chase? Don't bother lying to me, I'm not in the mood to stand for it."

Ben set Paige back in her nest and stood up to face Zack. "I wanted my shot at those familiars, but I couldn't do it with Max there so I took the baby. She's just bait, as soon as I've had my fun with those familiars I'll drop her off somewhere safe."

"Why doesn't it surprise me that it was something along those lines?"

"Don't worry about it for now, it's not like I can reel them in without resources, which is where I'm at right now. With no electricity, I can't even put a report of an abandoned baby on the news. For now I'm just stuck being a babysitter."

That had been at the beginning of this dreary week. Zack went over the Yum Yum Tree Hotel at least once a day, if not two or three times, to check on Ben and make sure he wasn't getting into trouble with that baby. Amazingly enough, he seemed to have bonded with the girl on some level. Brin liked to hold her, but when she started crying, the only person who could console her was Ben. This upset Brin a little, but she shrugged it off by joking that she wasn't planning on having kids soon anyway. They had kept the entire situation quiet from Max, Jondy, and Alec. Zack knew that the fewer people who knew about this, the better, at least until the baby was gone. He didn't want Max to know that Ben had been involved in the debacle in Montana.

"You're thinking about Ben again, aren't you?" Brin asked quietly as they lounged around JamPony. For once, every package had been delivered and now everyone was just sitting around without anything to do. Normal wouldn't let them take off early, which was absurd because even if a package was called in, it wasn't like he would need everybody to go on the run.

"I can't help it. He made so much progress back on the farm, it's like he's forgotten all about it. How can he just go straight back to what he was before?"

Brin sat down across from him at the tiny table where he was musing. "Well, the way I see it, if he could just change back into what he was before, it stands to reason that he could change again into what he became afterwards. I see more of that good side of him whenever he's dealing with the baby. Maybe that baby is the best thing for him. I know his motives for getting her were exactly what you didn't want, but I think she's having a good effect on him. Unfortunately, that baby has a home somewhere, even if it probably is with a bunch of familiars who will raise her to hate us."

Zack rolled a quarter across the table, reaching out and grabbing it before it rolled off the edge. "I'm just worried about the familiars coming after her while the electricity is out. They might have been able to track Ben here without his knowledge, and as much as he wanted the chance to kill them, I don't think he'll have much luck if they surprise him."

"Hey, one of you slackers, hot run!" A package nearly the size of his arm landed in his lap, which he picked up and looked at in disgust. Great, just when he thought he was done for the day.

* * *

Ames walked past JamPony for what felt like the millionth time. This was the only lead he had to find Kay, so he took every opportunity he could to eavesdrop on 452 and her friends, but it didn't take long to figure out that they hadn't seen her. He was sure they would have talked about it at least once over this past week, but her name never came up. He still remembered the look on 452's face when she discovered that Zack had thrown Kay in with him during her heat. Maybe Kay didn't feel like facing her just yet. Still, his instincts were screaming that she was in Seattle somewhere.

"No, I can't come to Crash tonight. Logan really wants to make dinner tonight to make up for how distant he's been lately." Ames threw himself around the nearest corner as 452 and some other young blonde woman he'd never seen before walked into sight.

The other woman looked at 452 curiously. "Distant? You haven't said anything about that."

452 shrugged, looking down at her dismally blank clipboard. "That's because I didn't want to say anything until I knew what it was about. I think it's one of his big projects, but whatever it is he's been acting weird lately. As long as he makes up for it and doesn't stay like this too long, it's not too big a deal, but I hope he doesn't make a habit out of pushing me away."

__

Who's Logan? He hadn't heard that name before. _Well, I may as well go along and see if I recognize him. Maybe it'll be helpful._ This was easier said than done, however, because following 452 without her noticing was much more complicated than he had expected it to be. He had to sneak from alley to alley as she powered along on her motorcycle because of the way she kept looking around her as she drove. He could only assume that it was automatic because of her training, but it made things difficult for him. Keeping up with her, staying quiet, and remaining out of sight could have been turned into an entire career for how much work it was. He wished he could have taken a car, but she would have noticed that right away, so he was reduced to running around in dank alleyways like the creatures he used to chase. It wasn't until they were nearly there that he realized they were approaching his father's old house. Ames had actually lived there for a brief time before he was sent off to Brookridge Academy, but it was hardly recognizable now. Like the old, worn, rotting homes around it, this house was in a serious state of disrepair. Apparently this Logan guy didn't have the time to do basic fix-ups.

Once 452 was inside, he went around the side of the house and peered in the living room window. He could see an impressive collection of computer equipment on a desk in the middle of the room, but the occupant of the house was out of sight. Shapes were moving around in the kitchen, so he went around the house and peeked in that side. The moment he saw Logan cutting up a few carrots, he recognized him. He had been involved in the incident with 453, and he had been the Eyes Only correspondent that Wendy talked to when she was looking for Ray. _Well well well. Connections to the most influential and informed man in the city. I think I know who Kay's been talking to._

* * *

Kay was nearly at her wit's end. An entire week of blackness with no way of moving on with her search for Paige was really starting to take its toll on her. Her nightmares had taken an entirely different turn, which included the deformed and bloody Ben from her earlier dreams running off with Paige and yelling at her that he was finally taking what should have been his. Bling had learned not to wake her up, because with her nerves strung so tight she nearly took his head off the first time he tried. After that, he left her alone. She knew she was becoming short-tempered with Logan for their lack of progress, which was unfair because she knew it wasn't his fault, and she also knew her foul mood was affecting how he acted. He had finally yelled at her the day before because he knew Max was becoming frustrated with him pushing her away. According to him, she was completely ruining every day for him.

Now she was wandering down a street a few blocks away from Bling's apartment. Moving was the only way she felt at ease anymore, and even then it wasn't like she was very relaxed. Even the minor act of walking helped distract her from the wave of desperate and ghastly thoughts that consistently crashed through her exhausted brain. Every horrible scenario that she had ever pictured was now ten times worse with the time that had passed. Paige had already spent half of her short life separated from her mother. When she got her back, would Paige even remember her? _You mean _if_ you get her back._ That little voice only made her feel worse every time she thought about her daughter. _Shut up. I _will_ get her back, just you wait and see._

"Miss, stop right there!"

Kay turned to see three sector police standing ten feet behind her with their guns raised. Just great, this was the last thing she needed right now. "Can I help you, gentlemen?"

"Let us see your neck."

__

Why is this even an issue now? I thought we were far past this. Of course, she knew there was a good possibility that with her insufferable luck, she had managed to come across some anti-transgenic cops. She turned around and pulled her hair to the side, showing her barcode clearly under the light from the cloudy sky, which was the only dependable light source for miles. When she knew they'd had a good look, she turned back and let go of her hair. "What is this all about?"

One of the men stepped forward while pulling his handcuffs off of his belt. "It's policy to bring in new transgenics to have them cataloged as a citizen of this city. We feel it's important to know who all of you are."

"Look, I'm not a citizen, I was just passing through when the blackout hit, so I'm just temporarily stuck here. You're never going to see my face again after the power's back on."

"I understand that, miss, but for the time being we still need to register you. We don't know how long the blackout is going to last, so I think it's just best for everyone if we know who you are for as long as you're here."

Kay studied him skeptically. He looked like a nice enough guy, even though she knew most of the sector police were scumbags. Maybe she hadn't run into transgenic haters after all. The only thing she didn't like was that he was still holding up the handcuffs. "You can put those things away, I'm not going to put up a fight, and believe me, if I wanted to it would be only too easy to escape while wearing those cuffs. Just understand that I want this business over with fast, I have other plans today." _Liar, _the little voice sneered. _You were just going to sit around and mope._

She sat in a chair at the station and watched one of the cops dig through his desk. "I know I've got that translation paper around here somewhere. Dammit, I hate reading these barcodes."

"I'll make it easy for you. 330084852358. That's X5, if you didn't know."

He grabbed a slip of blank paper and a pencil and said, "Could you repeat that?" Once she had done so, he pulled out a rather thick book and flipped to a page marked "X5." She could see all of her old family's barcodes listed there. Max's was at the very top of the list. He copied her barcode down again on that page. "Age?"

"Twenty-three."

"Current address?"

"Is that really required?"

"Yeah, but we never actually get anyone's real addresses. We've checked them all out and discovered they were false."

"Well then, you can tell your superiors that I did the same thing. Just make up an address off the top of your head, you're more familiar with the area than I am. Will there be anything else?"

"Yes, we like to find out if you've ever been on any assassination missions in Seattle."

"No."

"Very well, you're free to go."

Kay walked out of the station rolling her eyes. "Could they have wasted my time any more than that?" As it began to drizzle outside, she pulled the hood of her jacket up. She never noticed the two familiars heading for the station behind her.

All three cops looked up when the two burly men stepped in. It was pretty obvious right away what they were, no one could walk around with muscles like that and not appear suspicious. One of the men, a tall man with reddish-brown hair and a strong jaw line, stepped forward and held out a picture. It was a fuzzy photograph copied from a television shot, but the woman in it was still recognizable. Even though her hair was red and curly in the photo, it was still pretty apparent that it was the X5 they had just released.

"Where is this woman? I'm told that you have an index of every transgenic in the city. She is wanted for the murder of the former mayor's daughter."

The same cop that had been talking to Kay opened the book immediately to the X5 page. He knew very well that these were not people to mess with. "We just have her other information that I'm sure you already have, but this address isn't real. She refused to give us her actual location."

The other familiar, a shorter, stockier man with a thick mane of dirty blonde hair, spoke this time. "Is there anything you can tell us about her that might be useful?"

"Well, her hair isn't that color anymore, it's blonde right now. She was wearing a hooded jacket and jeans, but that's pretty typical of everybody. She just left a couple minutes ago, so she couldn't have gone far. Other than that, there's nothing I can tell you."

The second familiar nodded, smiling as he reached behind his back to grab something that the cops couldn't see. "You've been very helpful, gentlemen, but I'm afraid we can't risk you telling anyone we were here." Before they could react, he pulled a gun out from behind his back and fired three perfect shots into the foreheads of all the cops.

Jacob, the redhead, stared down at the three bodies on the floor. "That wasn't bad, but you hit the last one a little to the left."

The shooter, Curtis, shrugged and put the gun back in its place. "At least I can actually hit a person standing at point blank range, unlike some other people I know."

"Very subtle," Jacob sneered. "Well, we know the girl is in this sector, and with any luck we'll be able to follow her to wherever she's living and capture her at our leisure. Let's go."

It didn't take Kay long to realize she was being followed, familiars weren't nearly as quiet as transgenics. She turned the nearest corner and burst into a run, leaping up onto a dumpster and giving one more good jump to land on the roof of a small antiques shop. She waited for them to turn the corner and also start running as they realized that she had caught onto them, then she jumped back down to the ground on the opposite side of the shop from them. After backtracking all the way to the station and taking another longer route to Bling's apartment, she was satisfied they hadn't been able to follow her. A bike she'd never seen before was sitting outside the building, but she walked straight past it and headed inside and up the stairs.

"No, ma'am, I'm sure that no one has opened this package before now," came a frustrated voice from her hallway. She was halfway up the stairs to her floor when she heard it, and it made her stop dead in her tracks. _Nah, it couldn't be. My luck couldn't be that bad, could it?_ She crept up the steps much more quietly this time and paused just outside the door to her hallway so she could look through the window. No one was there, but she could see an open door just down the corridor. If she hurried, she might be able to make it to Bling's apartment before he came back out. Taking a deep breath, she sprinted soundlessly down the hall, screeching to a halt just as Zack stepped out of the open door directly in front of her. If she had thought the silence was thick when she'd first seen Logan again, it was nothing compared to this. They both stood there in shock, staring at each other with their legs still braced from having to stop so quickly.

Kay was the first to move again. In one swift motion she dodged around him and raced to Bling's door, unlocking it and running inside before Zack could react. _Don't follow me, don't follow me, don't follow me,_ she pleaded silently. Zack was absolutely the last person on earth she wanted to see right now. _Where's Bling? I can get him to answer the door if Zack follows me._ However, it appeared that Bling wasn't home, because all the candles had been put out, giving the apartment an extremely gloomy appearance because of its lack of windows.

"Kay, open the door," Zack said gently from the other side. Did his voice sound strained? She couldn't tell. She listened to him breathing deeply on the other side, then he lightly knocked on the door, making it vibrate against her back. "Please open the door, Kay, we need to talk."

Fury bubbled up inside her so abruptly that she had no idea where it had come from. "Talk? You think we need to talk? Actions speak louder than words, and you made yourself pretty clear last time. I don't think there's anything to talk about."

"Please don't be like that. Look, I know what I did was wrong, but I think I deserve the chance to make it up to you."

"If you really want to get what you deserve, I'll open this door up in a heartbeat and give it to you. If I were you, I wouldn't want this door opened." She hadn't even realized the suppressed rage she still had about that particular incident. Apparently the saying "out of sight, out of mind" was true. Now that he was here, she wanted to rip him apart.

"How about you let me come in and say my piece, then I'll let you beat the crap out of me. Does that work for you?"

"Only if I get to twist your head off afterwards and shove it up your—"

"Let's see how you feel after I've talked first before we think about that," he interrupted quickly.

Kay couldn't believe she was doing this, but she reached out and turned the doorknob slowly. She stepped back and let the door swing open of its own accord, feeling her stomach lurch at the sight of him. This really was the last thing she needed right now. Her daughter was missing, being chased by a cult that planned to suck all of her life's blood out of her, the electricity was out, and now she had to deal with this? Sometimes her own rotten luck amazed her. "Come in before I change my mind," she ordered sharply, staring at a family photograph of Bling's hanging on the wall next to the doorway. Just because she had agreed to talk to him didn't mean she had to look at him.

Zack stepped past her, making sure to give her plenty of room so that she couldn't lash out at him, and wandered around to the other side of the table as she shut the door. He knew the little table wouldn't make much difference if she decided to come after him, but he still felt safer with it between them. "Like I said before, I know what I did was wrong, and I know there's nothing I can do to make up for it. I just did it out of anger, if I had been thinking clearly I would have realized there had to be something else going on than you betraying us. I guess I just didn't know how to respond when I saw you two lying there on that bed when I was imagining a completely different scenario. I went off the wall, and I know I hurt you deeply. I can't say I blame you if you never forgive me, but you've got to believe I'm sorry. Even if you still want to kill me, you need to believe that I regret what I did. I think that may very well be the worst thing I've ever done to my family. I love you, Kay, whether you want me to or not. You're family to me."

She was shaking by the time he finished speaking. Zack wasn't particularly talented with comforting words, and he certainly hadn't said anything that made her feel better. He loved her and thought of her as family? What kind of sick bastard would set up his own sister's rape? Heat cycle or not, that's what it was. A tear slipped down her cheek as she glared at him. "You son of a bitch, you think that was enough? You think that makes up for everything? You don't even know everything you put into motion! I'm sure that if you did know, you would have been smarter than to try and talk to me. If you knew everything, you would have run for the hills the second you saw me!"

He didn't even try to get away as she leapt straight over the table and slammed into him, forcing him into the wall behind him. He made no attempt to defend himself when she started pounding away at his face, screaming every insult she could think of at him. Kay knew she was taking all her frustration from her current situation out on him, but wasn't it his fault anyway? If it hadn't been for him, Paige wouldn't exist today to be kidnapped. She wouldn't be at odds with him right now, she would still be close with Max and Brin, and she would probably be back together with Ben. How could he ever expect her to forgive him for everything he had put her through? She continued hammering away at him, hitting every inch of him that she could. He wobbled on his feet, but he still stayed standing. He knew she had to empty herself of the torn emotions he had placed in her so long ago. If that meant she killed him or permanently damaged him, so be it. It was what he deserved.

As she started to feel the severe burn of overuse sear through her arms, Zack's face flickered in front of her eyes and changed smoothly into Paige's. She paused in mid-punch and gasped, blinking her eyes furiously until she was looking at Zack again. She threw in a few more good punches, then suddenly her baby's face returned. Her earlier thoughts came back to her. True, if he hadn't thrown her with Ames then Paige wouldn't be alive to have been kidnapped, but did she really want to turn back the clock so that her daughter never came into this world? She stood trembling in front of Zack, staring at him with a mixture of wrath, confusion, pain, misery, affection, and dismay at what she had done swimming through her eyes and across her features. Another tear escaped the confines of her eye and ran over her cheek, only to fall off her chin and land on her jacket. Finally, the dam broke. Her tears gushed out shamelessly as she wrapped her arms around her body and hugged herself miserably.

"Why did you have to do it? Of all the things you could have done to test my loyalty, why did it have to be that? Don't you know what that did to me?"

Zack stepped tentatively away from the wall. He felt like a truck had hit him, he'd forgotten how strong Kay was, but he knew that if he didn't act now, things might never improve between them. He hesitantly reached out and rested a hand on each of her shoulders, then, when she didn't jerk out of his grasp, he pulled her against him and held her while she cried. She shuddered at the contact, but finally wrapped her arms around his ribs and leaned against him, feeling some of her pain drain slowly away. No one had held her like this since she'd lived on the farm, and she had forgotten how much she missed it. Holding Paige was one thing, but having someone hold her and rock her comfortingly like a child was relief on a whole new level.

Kay finally stepped out of the hug and wiped briskly at her eyes. Once her hands were away from her face, she took in the damage she had done to Zack. Instead of making her feel better to see him as a bloody, pulpy mess, she felt incredibly guilty. She grabbed some paper towels from the counter and reached out to dab at the already congealing blood around his mouth, but he took the paper towels from her.

"You don't have to do anything, I don't deserve it. I can clean myself up. What do you want me to tell Brin when she asks tonight about what happened to me?"

She hadn't even thought about that before. "I don't know, be creative. I'm not ready to see everybody just yet. I wasn't even expecting to see you."

He nodded, not even questioning the fact that she wanted to remain hidden for now. "Am I allowed to visit every now and then, or is that too much too soon?"

Kay cringed at the thought of having to face him again after her inner turmoil from this incident boiled over. "Don't make any plans to see me for now. I'd rather just be alone."

He nodded again, and then headed for the door. Just before he went out, he turned and gave her a weary parting smile and walked off. Kay slumped down into one of the kitchen chairs, still breathing hard from exerting herself so much. By this point, she was starting to wish that the other X5s had killed her as kids when they had the chance.

* * *

Ben wasn't quite sure how he felt about the past week. On one hand, it had somehow been the most relaxing week he'd had in a long time. He was usually always on the move, this was the longest he had remained in one place for several months. Paige also had a calming effect on him when she wasn't upset. He felt very similarly as he had when he was with Kay; it was as though he didn't really need anything else to make his life complete. Maybe he didn't really need to kill for the Blue Lady. Maybe he had misinterpreted everything he had grown up to believe. On the other hand, Zack was doing his damnedest to make his life a living hell. He had his own doubts about his plan to use the baby as bait, but hearing Zack criticize him for it only made him want to carry it out anyway just to spite his brother.

Brin was another high point of the week, but seeing as how Zack was usually right behind her, Ben wasn't able to enjoy her visits as much. She chose to ignore the fact that he'd opted to stay away from the family and kill instead. Rather than hold anything against him, she took the opportunity to chat with him like they were back on the farm. Sometimes they small talked, other times they had serious conversations about their lives, and at still other times they had philosophical discussions about the universe, the nature of human beings, and the meaning of life. It made him feel good to stretch his imagination again and come up with strange theories for the why's of the world.

That night when she showed up, she gave him a wonderful piece of news. "Zack isn't feeling too well tonight, so it's just us." That brightened him up immediately. She plopped a large piece of pizza in front of him. "I cooked it over a trashcan fire, so I'm not sure if it will have an aftertaste or not."

"It doesn't matter, I eat anything," Ben said quickly, and then took a large bite of his pizza. It wasn't bad, even for not being cooked in an oven.

Brin sat down on the bed near Paige, smiling down at the little girl, who was gazing off into space and giving odd little squeals from time to time. "Hey Ben, here's a puzzle for you. What do babies think about?"

Ben pondered it for a moment, then smiled and prepared himself to tell a tiny story. Just because they both knew it wasn't true didn't mean it wasn't fun. "Well, first of all, the human mind works in a circle. We are born true geniuses, but the process of growth makes us forget everything, so we have to learn it all again. For instance, it's common knowledge to all babies how human emotions are set up, which is why they are so good at getting us to cater to their every need. They lose this particular art as young children, when suddenly they aren't so cute anymore, and they redevelop it as senior citizens. Have you ever been able to turn down an old man on a walker?" Brin laughed and shook her head, then hushed and let him continue. "Babies also understand everything there is to know about love. They immediately love anyone who takes care of them, but that's something else they lose as young children and don't get back until they are adults. That's why you love your family, but you fall in love with your soul mate. That love for your family sticks with you as you grow, so it's just there almost without a reason, but you have to _learn_ to love someone new. It's the inner baby that decides who you love, because when you're with that person then the little baby inside you will pop up and suddenly you'll feel that love come out of nowhere. It happens so fast, it feels like you fell into it. Hence, the term 'falling in love.'"

Brin chuckled as she finished her pizza. "I don't know where you come up with this stuff. It's probably one creative mind like you that made all of Greek mythology. Maybe you should write a book, you've got a wonderful imagination. I swear, if I wasn't old enough to know you were making it up off the top of your head, I'd believe you."

Ben nibbled on the crust of his pizza thoughtfully. It was so strange, with the way his mind took off with him when he was telling a story, it almost felt like he believed every word that came out of his mouth as well. _What if I'm wrong? What if that's what I did as a kid?_ He pushed that thought away forcefully, turning his mind instead to the little story he'd just spun up. He hadn't meant to go off on that tangent about love, but it made sense to him. He naturally loved Brin because he always had, but it had been very different to fall in love. Why was he having all these musings on love lately? He hadn't bothered with it for years, and lately it seemed to have been pushed away from him as well, but now he was thinking about it again. Maybe it had something to do with taking care of a baby, he didn't really know. He just wished it would stop. Love was the last thing he felt like dealing with again.

* * *

Author's Note: I would say read and review, but since no one seems interested, I guess I'll settle for just continuing to post the story. There's no sense in quitting since I've already finished it. 


	10. Family Reunion

Disclaimer: Paige and Kay. That's it.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 9: Family Reunion

It had been two days since her confrontation with Zack, and Kay had been even more troubled than usual. Seeing him again made her realize how much she missed everyone. Logan was nice, but he had never been one of her closest friends. She couldn't really open up and talk to him like she could talk to Brin or Max. They understood her much more than he did. She even missed Alec's sense of humor. Still, the only person she was really on talking terms with right now was Logan, so she would have to make due.

"I haven't seen you for a few days," Logan commented when she entered his living room. "I wasn't sure you would come back here after I snapped at you the other day."

She shrugged. "I knew I had that coming. I just don't have anyone to vent on, and you were the only available person. I promise I won't blow up about how slow things are going. With any luck, the familiars won't be any better off than I am. They can't spy on us with the hoverdrones, so I might actually be closer than they are. Have you and Max sorted everything out? I know that was all my fault too."

"It's not like we were having serious problems, I just wasn't as attentive as usual because I was worn out and distracted at the end of the day whenever she stopped by. We had dinner a couple nights ago, and I'm pretty sure we're good again. You know I haven't come up with anything new, so is there something you wanted to see me about?"

She sighed and sat down on the couch while he sat down behind the desk. Even though his computers were useless right now, it was still habit to sit by them. "I'm just bored. I just found out Bling has a new girlfriend, which explains why he hasn't been around much lately, so I have no one to talk to. You're not exactly a party animal, but you'll have to do. I need something to distract me."

"Thanks for giving me so much credit."

She smiled in spite of herself. "Sorry, but you're not a girl. I can't talk to you about a lot of stuff."

Logan watched her look around glumly. "Did something happen over the past few days? You're acting a little odd."

Should she tell him? _Well, there's really no reason not to._ "I ran into Zack the day before yesterday. It wasn't the best reunion ever, but it really got me thinking. Now I'm just kind of a mess and I didn't want to be alone. He had me really confused. I wanted to scream at him and just flat out hate him, which I did for a little while, but then I cooled off and we actually hugged before he left. I told him not to come see me again though, that would just be too much."

Suddenly, something clicked in Logan's head. "You know, I don't think you really came here to talk to _me_. I think you came over because you wanted me to talk you into going and seeing the others. Look, before you start telling me how I'm totally wrong, just let me explain why I think that. Even though you told Zack that you didn't want to see him again, I don't think you meant it. You miss everything you had before, and some part of you really wants to see everyone again, but you're scared to do it. So, you came over here to make me talk you into it."

Kay knew there was a ring of truth to his words, but she didn't want to admit it. She crossed her arms and stared at her feet with her jaw set firmly. "That's not true, I came over here to talk to you."

"Whatever you say, but just for your information, JamPony closed down today because they're not getting any business. I don't know where Max is, but you could try looking for everyone at their places. Then, of course, there's always Crash. You'll have to sneak through checkpoints, but I daresay you'll find a way."

Kay glared at him with her arms still crossed. "Like I said before, I wasn't planning on seeing them."

Logan stood up and picked up his car keys. "Do what you like, but I have a contact to go visit. No, it's not about your case, it's about something else."

"How are you going to get through the checkpoints?" she pointed out quickly, looking for any excuse not to be left alone to her thoughts, which would probably convince her to go see everyone.

"He's in this sector, so I don't have to worry about it. Just go see them, maybe it'll make you feel better."

She stared after him furiously as he walked out the door. Damn him, she knew he had placed her on the verge of going out to visit everyone. After he was gone, she paced around his house, finally stopping when her eyes landed on a picture of Max grinning with an arm around Brin that was sitting on top of an envelope full of pictures. She sighed and headed out the door. If she was going to do this, it would have to be before she lost her nerve.

A half hour later, she found herself standing outside Zack and Brin's door. Zack already knew she was here, so she knew it was probably a good idea to start with him. She raised her hand nervously, then dropped it at her side again. Did she really want to talk to him? It was only two days ago that she told him she didn't want him to visit, so wasn't this a little too soon? _I won't just be around him. I'll get to see the others, and hopefully that will go better than my reunion with Zack._ Her fist tapped gently against the door, and then dropped back down to her side, still clenched nervously. She heard Zack's voice distantly, followed by Brin's laugh, before the door opened. She nearly cringed at Zack's face when it came into view. The cuts had scabbed over and the bruises had long since turned green. How had he come up with an excuse for that?

"Hey," he greeted softly, taking in her uneasy appearance. "I'm glad you stopped by. I really didn't think you would."

She hugged herself uncomfortably. "I changed my mind. I heard Brin just a second ago, what was she laughing at?"

"When we heard you knock I commented that I was off to scare another unsuspecting victim." He gestured casually at his face, then stepped back. "Did you want to come in?"

She walked past him into a brightly candle-lit living room. Brin had always hated the dark. "Where is she?"

He closed the door and leaned against it, making sure to give her plenty of space. "She's in the bedroom getting changed. We were going to go to Crash and hang out."

Unsure if she was excited or terrified, she turned to face him. "Does that mean Max and Alec are there?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Do you want me to get Brin?"

"No, I'll wait for her to come out. So, you guys are together now?" She didn't want him to know she'd been talking to Logan. Things were probably still tense between those two.

"As weird as it is, yeah, we are. We got together shortly after the big fight."

She smiled briefly, hating how foreign it felt on her face. "That's good, I figured you two would hook up sooner or later."

"Hey Zack, have you seen my gray sweatshirt? I swear that thing disappears at least five times a wee—" Brin broke off suddenly, stopping dead in her tracks when she saw Kay standing in her living room. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, but after nearly a minute she snapped it shut. "You know, I probably left it in the bathroom." With that, she rushed into her bathroom and shut the door. Kay's stomach dropped when Zack gave her an apologetic look and he raced in after her. She strained her ears to hear what they were saying, which didn't make her feel any better.

"Why did you run out like that?" Zack asked quietly, as though he knew Kay was trying to listen in.

"I just wasn't expecting to see her. Zack, we thought she was dead! Why didn't she come back before now? It's been months, and then she just shows up right out of the blue. Did you really expect me to welcome her with open arms? God, you don't look surprised at all. Did she make your face look like that?" He must have nodded, because she burst out, "You told me it was a couple familiars! Now you're lying for her? Why didn't you at least tell me? Why didn't she let you tell me?"

Kay could see this wasn't going to be good. _What was I thinking? I made a big mistake by coming here._ She headed for the door as silently as she could, not even listening to Brin's interrogation anymore. She wasn't sure how much longer she could go without something positive happening.

"Brin, it's her decision when she wants to come out and see us. She wasn't even expecting to see me, she was probably just waiting for the right time. Did it ever occur to you that she might have had to work up the courage for this? Things were a mess when she left, I know I wouldn't rush right back. Yes, I know a lot of it was her fault, but I think that means you should give her even more credit for coming to see you. That's why she came here, I'm sure. It wasn't to see me again."

Brin crossed her arms, but she knew he was right. It was just hard to overlook her own hostility for everything that had happened. The power of her feelings surprised her more than anything else. When she had thought that Kay was dead, she thought that she would have given anything to see her one more time to talk things through, but seeing her standing in her home had taken her completely off guard. So many questions needed to be answered, but it wasn't until she saw her sister again that she realized how many unresolved issues needed to be taken care of. She walked past Zack and headed into the living room to start what she knew would be a long process, but it was empty. "Where did she go?"

"She probably left when you freaked out. I think you should go after her."

"Me? Why me?"

"You're the one that scared her off, so you're the one that should bring her back. You'd better hurry, she's probably getting out of here as fast as she can."

Brin sighed with frustration as she jogged down the hall. She wasn't even sure if she wanted Kay back, and now she was chasing after her? How stupid was that? She considered just slowing down and letting her get away, then she could tell Zack that she had tried, but it hadn't worked. It wasn't until she reached the main floor of her apartment building that she saw Kay ahead of her, walking out the front doors. "Kay!" she shouted, but it was obvious that Kay hadn't heard her. She hurried to the doors and out into the light rain that never seemed to go away lately. "Kay, stop!" she called again.

Kay froze, sure that she was imagining things, but when she turned around, Brin was standing there with the rain slowly soaking through her hair. She didn't know if this was good or not. Did Brin want the chance to yell at her? "Why?" she asked morosely. "Are you even going to listen to anything I have to say? I'm sorry for bothering you, you won't have to worry about it happening again."

Her voice was a mixture of melancholy and indignation that Brin just didn't know how to respond to. "I wouldn't have asked you to stop if I knew that was the reaction I was going to get. I know I reacted badly up there, but can you blame me? You owe us a huge explanation, and I think you should come to Crash with Zack and I and let everyone hear it."

All she had wanted to do was talk to them, and now it seemed as though she was going to be the target of a bloodthirsty cross-examination. Nevertheless, she waited outside as Brin ran back up and finally found her sweatshirt. She rode along in their dumpy old Geo Metro, sitting silently in the back and wondering how badly this was going to turn out. _If I end up feeling even more depressed than before, I'm going to kill Logan in the most slow, painful way I can come up with._ Crash had never looked more intimidating. Just before they went inside, Zack held out an arm to stop her. "I think you should wait a little bit before going in, then go sit at the bar until we've prepared everyone. Okay?" She nodded, wishing she were anywhere else. It would even be better to be back in Montana with Ames, Ray, and Paige. At least things were generally predictable there. After about a minute, she headed inside. It was strange to see Crash lit by candlelight. It was also much emptier than usual because they were running out of ice to keep the beer that was now stored in coolers cold.

Max grinned and waved at Zack and Brin as they approached. She, Jondy, Alec, Sketchy, and Original Cindy had all just been discussing possible baby names. Jondy seemed completely overwhelmed by everything. Max didn't blame her, she probably wasn't used to the idea that she was having a baby just yet. Until her stomach started to get bigger, it probably wouldn't seem real to her. For some reason, Brin looked very on edge when she sat down at the table. Zack didn't even bother to sit down, he remained standing by Brin's chair. Max knew right away that something big was going on.

"Is something wrong?" Everyone else at the table went quiet to listen to his answer.

Zack shook his head. "No, nothing's wrong. We just have a little bit of a surprise for you guys."

Jondy raised her eyebrows and looked at Brin. "Don't tell me you're pregnant, too?"

Brin's eyes widened in surprise. "Me? No, that's not it at all." She looked as though she wanted to say more, but she left that to Zack.

"Like I said, we have a surprise for you guys. Someone showed up today that I think you'll want to see." Suddenly, he motioned to someone at the bar. Max could only see glimpses of a blonde head moving in their direction, and it wasn't until she was right in front of them that they recognized her.

Kay couldn't have felt more naked if a spotlight had been pointed at her in the shower. _Why is it that every time I see someone again, they get really quiet?_ For once again, no one was making a sound. Her throat was too constricted with panic to even say hello. She knew she must look like a deer caught in the headlights, but she couldn't banish the fear she felt. Suddenly, the urge to hold her daughter in her arms hit her more strongly than ever. Or at the very least a stress ball would be nice.

Alec cleared his throat uncomfortably and sat up straighter in his seat. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about this, but someone had to say something. He threw on his usual, cheeky grin and said brightly, "Hey, what's up?" Jondy shot him a look of combined anger and surprise. She never had the chance to get to know Kay outside of Manticore, so her old hostilities still remained, but she couldn't believe that Alec was being so flippant about all of this. Kay had upset him just as much as everyone else with her actions, so why was he being friendly? Of course, they hadn't said Kay's name ever since she left, so maybe he had forgiven her already without her knowledge, but he still seemed overly cheery.

Kay could have hugged Alec for saying something to snap her out of her terrified daze. "At the moment, not much," she replied softly, giving him a brief smile before pointing her eyes at her shoes.

Original Cindy was the next to find her voice. "Long time no see, girl. Where've you been?"

She looked up again, making sure not to make eye contact with anyone other than Cindy. "I've been moving around a lot. I had to get some stuff sorted out," she lied quickly. Somehow, she couldn't bring herself to say anything extra, not even to ask how everyone was doing. If only a huge hole could open in the ground and swallow her right this second.

Sketchy finally smiled at her. "You dyed your hair back to blonde. How come? Red suited you."

She shrugged, glancing at him before she stared back down at her toes peeking through the tattered material of her shoes. "It started to grow out and I decided I wasn't going to bother re-dyeing it every time, so I just changed it back to my original color." It didn't bother her that Jondy wasn't saying anything, because they had never been close, but it worried her that Max was staying so quiet. Brin hadn't said anything else either after their first confrontation.

Finally, Max decided to speak. "How long have you been back?"

This wasn't going to be good. _Just look at the shoes, just look at the shoes._ "About a week. I got here right before the blackout."

Now Jondy looked up in disbelief. "And you didn't show your face until now?"

Kay felt a flash of anger towards the other woman, who she had the distinct feeling was trying to provoke her. "That's my business," she said coldly.

Brin stared up at her indignantly. "So you're saying that you had something more important than us to deal with in Seattle?"

"I've had a lot to deal with. You guys are on a pretty complicated list."

Max crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair, raising one leg so she could rest that ankle on her other knee. "And what's the difference between us and the other things on your list that made you decide to do the other things first?"

"Because the other things were easy!" Kay snapped, looking up at her for the first time. That wasn't entirely true, but at least she managed to hint at the fact that this was extremely challenging for her without actually having to say it out loud. More than anything her instincts were urging her to turn and run out the door and never look back. She desperately wanted someone to understand that things had been just as hard for her, if not harder than it had been for them. She just wished she had Paige with her. As much as she didn't want them to know she had a daughter, she also knew that seeing the baby would make things much easier for everyone to understand.

Brin crossed her arms in a manner extremely comparable to Max. "You know, I'm not sure I feel like being out anymore. Zack, let's go home."

Kay felt like someone had hit her. She held up a hand as Brin started to stand up. "No, don't bother. I'll go." With that, she hurried out of the bar, her entire body shaking. Right now she desperately wanted to cry, it felt like someone had ripped her heart right out of her, but she couldn't allow herself to break down. If she did that here, she might never have the strength to get back to Bling's apartment. A hand landed on her shoulder, and she spun around to face Zack. "What do you want? Do you want to drag me back in there so they could keep acting like I'm some kind of criminal? Or maybe they want to have an old fashioned stoning. Is that it?"

Zack felt helpless at the pain he saw on her face. He would never have believed that reunion could go so badly. "I'm sorry for what happened in there. You _have_ been gone a long time, maybe that just gave them too much time to think everything over and get angrier. They'll get over it and feel bad for what they said, you'll see. Besides, not everyone was against you. Alec, Cindy, and Sketchy didn't seem upset at all." As much as he didn't want to admit it, he was relieved that Alec had broken the ice. Otherwise the first words might have been an outburst of some kind.

"They weren't the ones who mattered to me the most. I appreciate you giving it a shot, but I think it's best if I just stick to my place for a while. As soon as the blackout is over and I've dealt with everything I need to here in town other than this, I'll be gone. Dammit, I don't think there's a way today could possibly get any worse."

He reached out and grabbed her arm as she started to walk away. "Wait, I think there's something you should know first that only Brin and I know right now. Ben's in town."

It was almost the last straw. Kay's stomach gave a horrible lurch and she just barely restrained herself from vomiting. All of this was just too much. "Ben? Why is he here?" Wouldn't that just finish off her day perfectly to run into Ben and have a screaming match with him?

"I don't know, but it's all really strange. He has a baby with him that he took from a bunch of familiars, which I think is the stupidest thing he's ever done, but on top of that he's been killing again. I don't think he's done anything here in Seattle, but I don't know how much longer that will last."

It seemed like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs and now something heavy was preventing her from getting any of it back. "Baby? Where did he get it?"

"I told you, from a bunch of familiars."

"No, I mean where were these familiars when he took the baby?"

"I think it was in Montana. Why?"

__

Does someone up there hate me that much, or do they just have a cruel, twisted sense of humor? "Where is he staying right now?"

"The Yum Yum Tree Hotel. Kay, why do you look like that?"

Kay wasn't even aware that she had lost all the color in her face and had turned slightly green. "Would you mind driving me over there? It will just be that much faster with your JamPony checkpoint pass."

He didn't really understand what this was all about, but he nodded and pulled out the car keys. "I should go in and tell Brin that I'm leaving. I'll be right back."

Kay bounced on the balls of her feet as she watched him go. How could Paige have ended up with Ben? Why was he even there that day? Now that she thought about it, she realized that he had been the one sitting outside her house that forced her to sit around and wait so she could sneak back in. He had cut his hair shorter and his jacket was covering his barcode, which was why she hadn't recognized him. She just wanted to get over there and take her daughter far away so that they could live a quiet, happy life. She wished that Zack would hurry up, she didn't want anyone else to get to that hotel before she did.

A dark haired familiar man stepped farther back into the alley he was hiding in. He was on the team to find the hybrid baby, so he not only had to contact his partners and let them know where the child was, but he also had to call the other team and tell them that the X5 was headed there as well. If all went well, they would have both to present to the Conclave.

Ames walked out of his hiding place behind a nearby dumpster. He couldn't capture Kay right there when an armed familiar was nearby and so many X5s were inside the bar. His best chance was to get Paige and hide until it was safe to show the baby to Kay and make a deal with her. He would make sure Paige was safe if she came with him to the Conclave and handed herself over to them. He knew it was risky, and it would be difficult to make it to the hotel before the other familiars, but he knew he had to do it. If not, he would be a fugitive for the rest of his life.

Everyone at the table looked up again when Zack came back, but Brin could already tell what he was going to say. "I've got something to take care of, so I'll be back sometime later. I don't know how late I'll be." He didn't even bother to properly say goodbye to her as he walked off.

Brin frowned and stood up, shoving her chair roughly back underneath the table. She knew exactly what he was going to do, even if she didn't know the reasons for it. "There's no way I'm going to let him do it."

Max looked up at her curiously. "Do what?"

"He's taking Kay to see Ben."

"What?!" Max, Jondy, and Alec all gasped simultaneously.

"You heard me. I can't explain it now, but that's where they're going. We've got to stop them. I'm not going to let her hurt Ben again." She took off at top speed. Max and Jondy looked at each other, nodded, and got up to run after her. Alec sighed and followed, leaving a very confused Sketchy and Original Cindy behind. Kay and Zack were already gone when they got outside, so Max waved for Brin to get on her motorcycle behind her.

"Come on, let's go. But I need you to know right now that you're explaining all of this to me as soon as we're done. Got it?"

* * *

Ben had spent the better part of the day sleeping. He'd had a steady headache all day, but it hadn't progressed into a migraine yet. He hoped to keep it from doing so, which would hopefully be easier because of how long Paige could sleep. She had only cried twice all day, and he had managed to quiet her down right away. She was also a deeper sleeper now, so he could sneak under the covers with an icepack on his forehead and block out the dreary light from the window if he chose to do so. He was just starting to feel better when his door came blasting inwards, landing with a loud _thunk_ on the floor. Paige started screaming at the top of her lungs and Ben threw the blankets off his face.

"You!" snarled White, standing in the bare doorway with his fists clenched. His eyes wandered over to Paige. "Get away from the baby."

"Why?" snapped Ben fiercely. "What do you want with her?"

White entered the room slowly, his body tensed and alert in preparation for Ben's retaliation, which he was sure was coming. "That's my daughter you're holding hostage, and I want her back," he growled, looking territorially in Paige's direction.

__

White's daughter? How can that be? "If you want her, come and get her."

White lunged forward at Ben, but he was caught completely off guard by the icepack that came flying into his face. Ben knew he had to move quickly, White was much stronger than him, so he grabbed Paige and huddled her protectively against his body as he kicked out the window and slid out. The moment his feet connected with the ground, he took off at top speed. He didn't know where he was going to go, but he knew he had to hide. Something told him that this was all going to spin completely out of control. He just had no idea how much of an understatement that was.

* * *

Author's Note: I didn't mean to guilt anyone into reviewing last time. I was just kinda depressed at the time. Whether I get reviews or not, I'm going to keep posting the story, but it will never fail that I will politely ask for reviews every time. :) Oh, and please review! 


	11. Why Does Everything Always Happen To Me?

Disclaimer: I own Kay, Paige, the two familiars Jacob and Curtis, and I also own somebody else, but you'll just have to wait and see who it is. :P

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 10: Why Does Everything Always Happen To Me?

It wasn't long before Kay realized that the other X5s were tailing her and Zack. "Zack, they're following us. Hurry up, I don't want them to interfere."

Zack glanced in the rearview mirror and obediently pushed his foot down harder on the accelerator. "Interfere with what?"

"I have some business with Ben that I would rather not have a crowd of people around for. I just want this to be quick and painless."

"Does this have something to do with that baby he has?"

Kay tried to make herself look innocent. "What would make you say that?"

He rolled his eyes, he wasn't going to fall for that one. "You didn't really get worked up until I mentioned the baby, and I don't think you asked about where he got it just out of curiosity. Why is that baby such a big deal?"

"Well, for one thing, she's a danger to him. As long as he has her, he's a walking target. Those familiars want her back in a bad way."

"Why?"

"I can't tell you right now, but we need to get over there as soon as possible. I need to get her away from him."

Now he was definitely suspicious. "How did you know it was a girl?"

Kay cringed, she shouldn't have let that slip. She had no intention of telling him Paige's identity. "I thought it was pretty clear that I knew all about this situation. Is it such a surprise that I know her sex? Hey, what room is Ben in?"

"Room 17." He glanced up into the rearview mirror again. Max's motorcycle was getting dangerously close, while Alec's stayed a little farther back. Zack kept speeding the car up, but the faster it went, the more it shook. It was pretty clear that it needed some basic repair work done. It shuddered around them as they approached their first checkpoint. Kay looked suspiciously at the checkpoint ahead of them. "Something's wrong here. It looks like someone drove through and knocked over the barrier." Sure enough, the pole that usually blocked off the road until the traveler was cleared was lying on the ground in three pieces. The sector police tried to run out in front of them, but Zack kept his foot down determinedly on the accelerator.

"If whoever was ahead of us just charged through, then that's what I'm going to do."

Kay's hands clenched as they approached the cops, but the police had no choice but to throw themselves out of the way as the car and two motorcycles barreled past them. Suddenly, Zack swerved the car to the right. Kay's body snapped sideways and she turned to look at him in shock. "What was that for?"

"Max was trying to come up on my right side, so I cut her off. She got out of the way just fine, but now she's farther back. I just have to keep her there."

Kay sat on her hands to keep from wringing them in her lap. With any luck, soon she would be holding her baby. Even with the speed they were going, it seemed to take forever to reach the Yum Yum Tree Hotel. Zack didn't even manage to stop the car before Kay opened the door and threw herself out, already running towards the hotel. She heard Max's and Alec's motorcycles screech to a halt behind her, but she would easily beat them to Ben's room. She tore through the hotel, catching door numbers out of the corner of her eye as she passed. She didn't actually get the chance to see Ben's room number, but she could tell which room was his. Why else would the door be laying on the ground? _The familiars couldn't have beaten me here, could they?_ The room was empty, but there was a comfortable-looking group of pillows that greatly resembled a nest at the head of the bed, which was where Paige must have slept. The window was broken, kicked out by the looks of it. She stuck her head out and looked both ways. A trashcan was laying on its side to her left, but she didn't know if it had been like that before or not. It was the only lead she had though. She jumped out and took off down the alleyway, straining her ears to hear anything useful. She could hear the X5s running through the hotel, but she would be out of sight by the time they reached the room. She took the time to set the trashcan upright before continuing, still listening for signs of life around her.

A loud shout caught her attention, as well as the click of a gun. Curtis stepped out from another alley to her right with a gun pointed right at her. "Stay right where you are. Believe me, I won't have any problems with shooting you."

She stared at him calmly and smiled sweetly. "I think you'll have some problems if your arms are broken." She flashed to his right, easily dodging the bullet he fired at her. Her right foot caught him in the back of his head and made him lurch forward, while she simultaneously reached out and snatched the weapon from him. He reached for it, but she slammed it straight into his face and sent him into the grimy brick wall of the building behind him. "Now, let me see those hands." She head-butted him when he tried to move forward, grabbing his left arm at the same time. The sharp _snap_ of his radius and ulna breaking completely in half echoed through the alley, followed closely by his cry of anguish. "Ah, and your people say they don't feel pain?" She repeated the process on his right arm and stepped away from him, thoroughly satisfied with her work. Killing him would solve nothing, but leaving him as a warning for the rest of the familiars would at least let them know that they weren't dealing with a typical X5.

"Just give it up, scum," came an all too familiar voice nearby. Kay turned the corner to see Ben on the ground, being driven face first into the concrete by Ames, whose back was to her. Paige was lying on the ground a few feet away, but she wasn't moving. _Oh no, what's wrong with her?_ She rushed forward with her hands clasped together like a club and swung them as hard as she could into the very center of Ames's back. All of the air rushed out of him in a great _whoosh_ as he dropped to his knees in surprise. She stepped over Ben and ran to Paige's side, picking her up and pulling the blankets away from her. Paige was breathing steadily, but a swollen lump on the back of her head indicated that she'd been hit.

She turned to Ben as he slowly rose to his feet. "What happened to her? Why isn't she awake?"

Ben's eyes widened when he saw Kay in front of him holding the baby. _"That's my daughter you're holding hostage, and I want her back." Oh no, it can't be._ It was the only explanation though for what he saw in front of him. At the panic in her eyes, he automatically answered the question almost against his will. "White hit me from behind when I thought I'd gotten away. He knocked me over and I dropped her." Now that the words were out, concern rushed through him for the baby. Was she badly hurt?

A gunshot cracked through the air and Kay's head jerked up. Two familiars were closing in on them from either side. A woman to her left smiled delightedly. "We were only meant to bring one of you in, but I think the High Priest will be very pleased when we give him both of you."

"What are you talking about?" Kay snapped. "I'm useless, Sandeman made sure of that."

"Maybe so," the woman replied, "but you can be used as breeding stock."

Ben had no idea what was going on, but he didn't like being closed in like this. He had wanted his confrontation with them to be on his terms, but now they had him surrounded. Three more familiars walked out on his left. He recognized them as the same people who had been following White through the woods in Montana. _Great, seven familiars. I think that's just a little more than I can handle._ Still, he pulled himself into a fighting stance. Zack's head popped around the corner nearly a hundred yards away to his left, but Ben gave his head a very slight shake. These people could all open fire on them if they felt they were being attacked.

Kay had seen Zack as well. In turn, everyone else's head stuck out around the corner to see what was going on, but she didn't think the familiars had noticed. Had the familiars learned the same hand signals as they had at Manticore? It wasn't worth risking it. Instead, she stepped closer to Ben. "On the count of three," she whispered gently, far too low to be heard by the familiars, "we run for the others. We'll be charging right at five of them, and I'm sure they're not expecting that. Hit anyone you can as you go, but don't stop for anything." She knew the chances of that working were impossibly poor, but they didn't have a choice. "One… two… _three_!" As she shouted the last word, they both took off towards Zack, with Ben striking out at the familiars as they passed and Kay focusing on dodging all of the bullets flying in her direction. She heard Ben yelp, but since his footsteps were still going strong, she didn't look back. _I need to get Paige out of here and find out what's wrong with her. Is it safe for her to be unconscious?_

Suddenly, the air around her grew unbelievably cold and her legs stopped moving. Although normal momentum would have made her tip over forward from such an abrupt halt, she somehow stayed standing without making an attempt. Ben shot past her, then paused a few yards ahead of her. What was going on? "Ben," she choked out through her suddenly constricted throat, "take Paige and get out of here." He just stared at her in confusion, but she couldn't move to emphasize the fact that he needed to be quick about it. "Take her!" He ran back to her and pulled the unconscious baby out of her arms. It took all of his willpower to turn and run away from her when she seemed glued to the spot, but he knew he had to get Paige out of there. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew that it wouldn't be good for Paige if these people got her. With Kay immobilized, the gunfire stopped and he safely reached the other X5s, even with a bullet planted firmly in his hip.

"Go," he ordered quickly when he reached them. "Don't ask questions, just go." Everyone turned and ran with him, never looking back. This meant that the rest didn't notice when Zack and Alec slowed down. Kay heard them leave and felt her heart sink, but she knew Paige would be safe with them. The only thing she could do was stand there as one of the familiars walked up behind her and brought the butt of his gun down on the back of her head.

* * *

The last thing Logan had expected was for four X5s and a baby to come bursting into his house. "What's going on?" he asked as Max walked over to him, looking very shaken. Alec, whose hip was bleeding, Brin, and Jondy all walked straight past him with the baby as they headed for the coolers he was using in the kitchen.

"I have no idea, but Kay was just taken by a bunch of familiars, Ben's alive, and somehow this baby is involved with everything." Logan took another hard look, then realized that the injured person he had mistaken to be Alec actually had a much shorter haircut.

"Does anybody else know what's going on?" he asked dazedly, watching as Brin opened one of the coolers and pulled out a bottle of water. Ben handed the baby off to Brin and shared the water with her as they worked to clean the wound on his hip, various scratches on his face, and a large lump on the back of the baby's head.

"He does," came Zack's voice from the door. Zack and the real Alec came in, dragging an unconscious White with them. "With everything that was going on with Kay, he tried to get away, but I thought it was probably a good idea to bring him with us. I think he knows everything about this whole mess." He threw the familiar down to the floor with disgust. "Do you have any chains around here?"

"If there's any here, they would be in the basement. Are you planning on keeping him here?"

Alec shrugged, staying right next to White in case he woke up. "Do you have any better suggestions? I've seen the basement of this place, you could probably lock him down there without tying him up and he'd be stuck for eternity." Even though he was talking casually, it was obvious that he was as shaken up as Max. Everyone looked a little paler than usual. Zack finally came back up with some chains and a metal folding chair, which he immediately started to bind White to, although Logan had no idea where he had found them. The house was silent other than everyone's heavy breathing and the clink of the chains, then suddenly a soft cry was added to the mix. The baby had woken up.

Zack walked over to the kitchen when he was satisfied that White was secure. "Are you all right?" he asked Ben, nodding at the wound on his hip.

"I'm fine, it didn't hit anything important. I'm more worried about her." Ben tipped his head towards Paige, who was now wailing miserably from the pain in her head. "I don't know if her mixed-up DNA will help her repair whatever damage was done when she hit the ground. This is all such a complete mess."

"What about her DNA? She's a familiar, isn't she?" Brin asked, gently holding a cold, wet rag to the back of Paige's head.

"Well, partly." At the odd tone in Ben's voice, everyone came into the kitchen to listen to him. He looked up at Zack. "This is Kay's baby."

A pin drop could have been heard in the silence that followed this announcement. Logan was the first to speak again. "So that's what it was all about."

Max turned to him with an eyebrow raised. "What _what_ was all about?"

He could already tell that she wasn't going to be happy about this. He turned to face Ben, who was watching him intently. "I've been helping Kay look for her ever since she got into town. She didn't tell me she was looking for a baby, otherwise I would have put the pieces together a long time ago, but she knew she was looking for a man with short, light brown hair. We were just about to find out who you were from fingerprints that we took out of that SUV you dumped near Chinatown when the blackout hit. Since I didn't know what it was all about, I didn't understand why she was freaking out so badly about us never making any progress. It makes sense now, though."

Max wanted to comment, but she'd just caught sight of Zack's face. "What's wrong?" she asked tentatively. She had never seen his face so white before.

"This baby, I'm the reason she's here," he choked out, staring at Paige in horror. "She doesn't look that old, so think about the timing. This must have happened when I put her with White. No wonder she kicked my ass the other day. If it wasn't for me, none of this would be happening."

Logan usually didn't make an attempt to talk to Zack, but he felt he had no choice this time. "She didn't talk about it much with me, but she told me about running into you. She's not completely over it, but I think she's already partly forgiven you. Think about it. I'm sure she doesn't want to be going through all of this, but if you hadn't done what you did, she wouldn't have a daughter at all."

Ben couldn't take his eyes off the baby. "When she told me to take the baby and run, she called her Paige." He just couldn't believe that he'd been taking care of Kay's daughter for ten days. No wonder she had been on his mind so much lately, now that he looked at her he realized that Paige was nearly a replica of her mother. Her hair was going to be darker, but her eyes were exactly the same. It was hard to believe that the last time he had talked to her, she had been pregnant with the baby in front of him.

A grunt from the living room made them all run in. White was just starting to wake up, and it seemed he was figuring out that he was tied down. His head finally lifted up and he saw them all. He scowled in distaste. "Why am I here?" he asked angrily.

Zack kneeled down in front of him. "We want to know about this baby." He gestured at Paige, who was still whimpering fitfully in Brin's arms. Ben reached out for her and rocked her gently when Brin passed her to him. It didn't take long before she had quieted down, feeling quite safe back in the arms of her guardian for most of her life.

"Why do you want to know about her? They probably won't bother looking for her now that they've got Kay. Untie me and give her to me, that's my daughter."

Max stepped forward with her fists clenched, ready to beat the shit out of him if he refused to cooperate. "You're not getting her until you've told us everything that happened after the big fight, then we'll see about letting you hold her for a minute."

He smirked at her. "You must take great pleasure in keeping my children from me, 452." When she crossed her arms and glared at him, he rolled his eyes. "The story isn't that interesting. When I went back to kill Kay, Ray came out of nowhere and told me to leave her alone. When she passed out, Ray convinced me to take her to a hospital. That's when I found out she was pregnant. I didn't want the Conclave to know that I was having a hybrid child, and I know she didn't want to tell any of you, so we went into hiding together. That's not the right way to put it though, it's more like I dragged her into hiding with me. I'll bet you wouldn't have loved her so much then. You probably wouldn't have even recognized her, because she wasn't the same person. She was suicidal for most of the pregnancy, I know for a fact that she took out a gun every day when she ate and set it on the counter, just in case she had the willpower to pull the trigger that day. It was pretty pathetic if you ask me, but she brightened up towards the end of the pregnancy, even more after Paige was born. I had the idea though that maybe she had passed on the virus for the Coming to Paige, so I had her DNA tested. Sure enough, she's another key. Now the Conclave wants either one of them, because if they have Paige, they can start everything now because they'll have enough blood if they drain her dry, and if they have Kay, they can use her to make more keys. It's pretty simple to understand."

Ben's jaw became painfully tight as he tried to hold back his anger. "Where have they taken her?"

"How should I know? I'm not involved in any of this crap anymore, that's why I was trying to get to Kay. If I handed her over to the Conclave, they would let me back in. Now though, since a different team took her, I don't know any more than any of you do."

Everyone remained quiet as the entire story started to sink in. They all had different things to think about, and none of it was positive. The worst thing to think about was what they were doing to Kay right now. Where was she?

* * *

That was the first thing that ran through Kay's mind as well when she finally woke up. She was sitting in the back of a truck, bound heavily by thick leather straps to the side of it. It had to be a very large truck, possibly even a semi, because she had the distinct impression that she was only sitting in one compartment of the back of the truck. She could see a door on either side of her, where she heard more people moving around. _God, please let Ben have escaped with Paige._ She couldn't believe she was praying right now, but she couldn't think of anything else to do. _Why does everything always happen to me?_

The door to her right opened and Jacob stepped in. "Ah, good, you're awake. You were much easier to track than we had expected you to be, did you know that? It was so predictable that you would go back to your old friends. All we had to do was sit around and wait for you to show up at their favorite hangout."

It was pretty clear that Ames wasn't working with the cult, so how did they know that? "And just how did you know who my friends are?"

"Because of me." Kay looked up and just barely managed to keep her mouth from dropping open when Sate stepped through the door. He had to duck to make it through the doorway without hitting his head. Jacob grinned at the tension in Kay's eyes, but it slid off his face as he walked away from Sate and headed out through the door on her left. No one on the team liked Sate very much, he gave everyone the creeps. That's why anyone who knew of him was more than glad to see him go when he was given the task of pretending to be the leader of the psy-ops. They were even relieved when they heard that 358 had taken him hostage after the escape from Terminal City. It meant that they didn't have to deal with that eerie telekinetic man anymore. Of course, his younger brother was in the personal employ of the High Priest, but they didn't like that freaky kid either.

When they were alone, Kay recomposed herself and smiled at him. "It's been a long time, Sate, but I wouldn't have minded if it was longer."

He grinned that familiar grin that had always chilled her to the bone. "I almost missed your sense of humor, but I somewhat lost my strange fondness for you when you locked me up in a basement and beat me senseless for the hell of it." The grin didn't quite fade from his face, but it somehow started to look horribly forced. His eyes flashed over her for a moment, then settled on her hair. "You know, if you really wanted to change your hair to fit you, you would have dyed it black. When you first showed up on my doorstep, I never imagined that you would have such a profound impact on my life. I guess you don't really know a person until they torture you."

She wasn't sure what to think. He wasn't acting all that different from what she remembered, but there was something behind his eyes that made her nervous. She never knew him that well, so she had no idea what to expect from him. "I think coming back from the dead has made you a little bit sick in the head, Sate. You never used to talk in riddles."

"Do you want to know what's sick? Leading an unknowing man into a group of X2s to be torn apart, locking him in a basement and beating him up yourself later, and then letting the X2s at him again at the big fight. Does that sound like a riddle to you? It sounds fairly straightforward to me. I was nearly dead when some of my people found me and killed the X2s. I spent months recuperating, getting another eye and learning to work my abilities through it again, and receiving blood transplants because of my blood loss. I even had to go into hiding because I was a known familiar after that first incident on live television with the X2s. You were on my mind a lot, and when the brilliant idea of using you to breed many new keys came out and the Conclave started assembling a team to capture you, I volunteered for it immediately. What can I say? I missed spending time with you."

She rolled her eyes and snorted. "Sure, because we had a real blast last time. I'm glad my daughter isn't here. I think having you around would have really fucked with her little mind."

The next smile that flickered across his face seemed genuine, but it didn't really prepare her for what he said. "I wouldn't have gotten the chance to influence her. I was the one who was going to be given the task of disposing her body when they had drained her." Her eyes widened slightly, but he didn't give her a chance to say anything else. He slowly rose to his feet, took another swift glance at her hair as if his first look wasn't enough to really take it in, then headed back out the door he had come through. Kay sat for a moment, unsure of what to think, and finally tilted her head back to rest it against the wall of the truck behind her. _God, it's me again. Please help protect Paige. She's an innocent, it's not like she chose to be involved in all of this. I don't know what you think about my kind, or the cult for that matter, but Paige isn't to blame for anything that's happened because of our peoples. Even if I never get back to her, let her be safe. Of course, if you have any spare time for me, I wouldn't say no to a little assistance._

* * *

Ben sat next to the bed in Logan's guest room, staring at Paige, who was sleeping fitfully. Her head was in a great deal of pain, so she whimpered in her sleep as she twisted around. His mind was in a tailspin after today's events, and he knew he had a lot to think over. He was positive that once everyone got over their initial shock that they would start trying to organize a rescue mission. What would happen if they got Kay back? If none of this had happened, he probably wouldn't be interested in talking to Kay again, but now that he knew about Paige, he felt the strongest urge to speak with her again. They had worked so well as a team earlier, it was like they had never been separated, and when she found herself immobilized, her only concern was for her daughter. It was a powerful flash of the Kay he had used to know, and now he was starting to wonder if she'd really changed as much as he thought. She had seemed like such a different person when he'd last talked to her. She was hardened, and it was obvious that she wanted to keep him at arm's length. All of her efforts to kill Thula had caused huge problems for the others, which had also made him angry with her, but she had just been trying to complete what Sandeman had intended for her to do. That was also part of the Kay he remembered; when something was upsetting her and she didn't know what to do, she threw herself into some small task or another to keep her mind busy. With everything that had happened to her, she was probably just trying to keep from thinking about it all, so she focused wholly on killing Thula and exposing the cult.

What would happen if they got the chance to talk now? He wanted to ask her one thing that had popped into his head while he listened to White's story. If he had gone to her after she knew she was pregnant, would she have gone with him or pushed him away? The thought of Kay being suicidal was something that he had never thought of before, she had always seemed so strong. He couldn't imagine what she had gone through; she believed that everyone hated her, she was living with a man that he knew she hated, and she was pregnant with his child without anyone to turn to. In his opinion, however, she deserved it all. She had turned against everyone who loved her and made their lives miserable as she went about her business, and when he had called her on it, she pushed him away and ran. Even worse, she ran away with White. She may not have had feelings for him when they first ran away, but what if she had developed them while they were living together? Had she allowed that man to touch her again? If he had showed up on her doorstep, he honestly didn't know if she would have turned to him for help and comfort or if she would have run back to White, fearing his reaction to her situation.

His arm wandered over to rest near Paige, and her tiny fingers automatically closed around his index finger. This was another thing that bugged him. He was starting to really care about her, even though she had just been a pawn in one of his plans. If they saved Kay and she was reunited with her daughter, would she want to run off again? He cared about Paige, and he suddenly had the strongest desire to keep her around. Kay didn't deserve this child, which should have been his in the first place. It felt like everything he had ever wanted for himself had been stolen heartlessly away. Paige should have been his daughter, not White's. Kay had cheated him out of that privilege. He didn't even want to be alone with his thoughts right now because they created such a burning fury inside him, but he couldn't talk to anyone else. As much as he had his own problems with Kay, he had the feeling that Brin and Max would only feel like discussing everything about her, and he really didn't want to hear that. He didn't want to talk about her at all, whether it was good or bad. Zack was out of the question because he didn't approve of anything Ben was doing right now, and he just wasn't close enough to Logan. _What about Alec or Jondy?_ Jondy wasn't closely attached to Kay, but it also meant that she wasn't really connected to the situation. Alec was another possibility because he had never been a close friend of Kay's and he might at least be able to talk about something else.

"Ben, are you okay?" He turned to see Jondy standing in the doorway, smiling at him. He smiled back, it had been so long since he'd last seen her.

"I'm alive, but that's the only really positive thing. How are you feeling? I heard you were pregnant."

She beamed and rubbed her flat stomach as she walked over and looked down at Paige. "Yeah, I'm starting to look forward to it now. I was a little scared at first because it was so unexpected, but I'm getting used to the idea now. I take it you're upset about Kay and the baby?"

He looked up at her, realizing very quickly that she had a similar opinion of Kay right now to his. "I really can't believe that she found out she was pregnant and didn't automatically look for me. I know we had just argued, but it's not like Kay to run away and hide. I would have expected her to search for me so that she would have someone to be with her and really support her during a difficult time. I would have forgiven her then, because the pregnancy itself wasn't her fault, but not now. She chose which way she wanted to go, and it wasn't towards me."

Jondy couldn't believe what she was hearing. As negative as he sounded, his tone of voice was screaming something different. "Ben, do you still love her?" Her voice sounded so incredulous that he raised an eyebrow.

"I don't really know. It hurts that she chose White over me, which makes me think that maybe I still do. Maybe they're not as strong as they used to be, but some of the feelings are still there, whether I want them to be or not."

Jondy threw her arms into the air in exasperation. "Ben, look at everything she's done to you! She slept with White a few days after you died! She caused countless problems for Max at Terminal City, she worked _with_ the X2s, and she lived with White while she was pregnant with his baby! How could that not get rid of everything you ever felt for her?"

Ben couldn't believe she was acting like this. Although he knew that she hadn't liked Kay very much, he never knew that she felt this strongly. He didn't get a chance to respond to her though. Alec stepped in the door with an extremely vicious look on his face. "If this is the kind of reception I was going to receive, I wouldn't feel like coming back either. Jondy, I don't usually ask you for much, but I want you to listen to me this time. Stay out of all this. I want you to go home and pretend you never heard of Kay, and I don't want you discussing her with anyone here. You've always had this grudge against her for no apparent reason, and I don't want you influencing Brin and Max and even Ben. They need to get over their issues with Kay, not get angrier with her. Do you understand me?"

Jondy couldn't believe he was talking to her like this. He was taking Kay's side over hers? What kind of boyfriend was he? "I really can't believe you. After everything she's done, which I know upset you just as much as everyone else, you're still supporting her over me? What sense does that make?"

"It makes perfect sense. Even though I may not understand them, I'm sure Kay had her reasons for those decisions, no matter how bad they were. You don't have any reason to really hate her. She never did anything to you, but we had this problem when we first met. You flipped out when you found out how close she had become to everyone, and you've hated her ever since. _You're_ the one not making any sense."

She glared at him, shaking with suppressed rage. "You know what? I'll leave, but it's not because you told me to. I'm leaving because I can't stand to be around you right now." With that said, she headed for the door.

Ben watched her go, not sure how to take Jondy's vehemence. "I didn't know she had such a problem with Kay. You never found out why?"

Alec sighed and looked at Paige curiously. "She never actually said it to me, but I think she had a thing for you. She didn't like Kay because she was jealous of her. Even though I'm pretty sure she loves me now, I think everything Kay did started to build up along with her jealousy and now she just flat out hates her. Sorry for the way she went off on you about her."

"It's okay, it was just unexpected. Are you as angry with Kay as she is?"

"I don't understand a lot of what she did, but Kay and I weren't very close. We hung out a lot, but it was only because of the humor factor. The only thing we ever did when we were together was joke around. We never really got to know each other, so I never expected her to do any of that stuff she did. But then I also can't blame her for it, because I don't understand what was going through her mind. I'm willing to bet you know quite a bit, or at least you've guessed at it. If we get her back and she decides she wants to be with you, will you take her back?"

"No, I couldn't even imagine it now. I'm on the same page as Jondy about this, Kay just messed everything up so much. She had a baby with White, of all people. That's not the part that bugs me so much, it's more the fact that she was obviously planning on raising Paige with him. You should have seen the house they were living in, it made me think of the white picket fence dream every girl has. That definitely wasn't meant for a short-term thing. They were planning on staying together. She made her choice, how can I forgive her for that?"

Alec nodded, he could see how that could cause problems. Speaking of children, he knew he would have to go after Jondy and talk to her. If he let her dwell on it too long, she might hold a serious grudge against him. After seeing how she held grudges against other people, he wasn't too interested in having that directed at him.

* * *

Author's Note: Please read and review! It's one of the best natural pick-me-ups that I know of. 


	12. Couple's Therapy

Disclaimer: Kay, Paige, Sate, Jacob, and Curtis are mine. Wow, my list is growing.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 11: Couple's Therapy

Alec stood outside the door to his own apartment, torn between going in there and confronting Jondy or leaving and avoiding her at all costs. He loved her, but she was no fun to be around when she was angry, especially when she was angry with him. Finally he groaned in defeat and opened the door. Jondy was sitting on the couch, looking like the perfect picture of an affronted little girl. The pout on her face was mostly for show, but the way that her fingers dug into the soft flesh of her upper arms while they were crossed certainly wasn't.

"What are you doing here?" she asked huffily.

"You know perfectly well that I wasn't going to let it end there. If I did that, I'd probably be sleeping on the couch tonight, and you know I wouldn't go for that."

She didn't even smile at the joke. "You don't know how embarrassing it was for me when you threw me out right in front of Ben. The least you could have done was talk to me in private. What's the big idea of choosing another woman over your pregnant girlfriend?"

"Who said that I was choosing Kay over you? Look, I like Kay and all, but she's not the one I want to be having my baby, and she's not the one I want lying next to me every night. I just needed to get you away from Ben. You know how you're feeling right now? Well that's how you were probably making Ben feel. Whether you like it or not, he cares about her in at least one small way, and it probably didn't help anything to hear you talking about her like she's the scum of the earth. Jondy, I've got to ask you something, and you need to answer me honestly and not get defensive on me. Okay?" She nodded sulkily, so he continued. "Do you still have feelings for Ben?"

Jondy stared at him in shock. "What made you think I had feelings for him in the first place?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe it was how you used to get so excited whenever his name was mentioned, or maybe it was because of how you suddenly, inexplicably decided to hate Kay after you found out that she and Ben had been a couple. You can't lie to me, I'm sure you at least used to have feelings for him."

"Fine, I had a little bit of a crush on him when we were teenagers, so it pissed me off a little that he got together with Kay with Zack's approval, while Zack only let me see him once and refused to let me stay with him. I know you won't want to hear it, but I think if Zack had let me stay with him then that he wouldn't have kept killing and we would probably still be together and very happy. Are you happy? I told you what you wanted to hear."

"You still haven't answered my question, though. Do you still have those feelings?"

She shrugged. "I still care about him, but you know perfectly well that I love you. Would I have stuck with you if I loved someone else more than you?"

Alec tentatively walked over and sat on the couch next to her. "Don't you find it a little funny that you used to have feelings for Ben and now you're dating his clone? Maybe you just placed your affections on me because we have the same face. Is that what happened?"

Her glare normally would have made him shy backwards, but he really wanted to hear the answer to that question. "No, and you should know better than to ask. I fell in love with you because I got to know you, not because you looked like someone I had an infatuation with. In fact, your looks were a mark against you because your likeness to Ben made me uncomfortable. You were so different from him that I felt weird whenever I looked over and saw that familiar face with such unfamiliar expressions on it. The fact that I'm with you now just shows that I really fell hard."

Well, that made him feel better. He didn't really like conversations like this. Anything to do with emotions was best left to the saps like Max and Logan, not people like him. "I'm sorry I accused you of that, but I had to know. You seemed so happy to see him at Logan's house."

"Of course I was happy to see him. We were so close when we were little, after Max he was my best friend. It wasn't because I was secretly in love with him. I really care about him, and that's why this whole thing with Kay makes me so mad. I know you'll hate me for saying it, but I think she deserves whatever she gets."

Alec studied her for a minute, realizing he was going to have to take a different route with this. "Do me a favor for a second. Shut your eyes. Don't give me a funny look, just do it. Okay, now I want you to picture all of this as I talk. I just died, and you're in the hands of the enemy. You get lonely, confused, and you make a big mistake. You have a one-night stand with one of your captors. Hey, keep your eyes shut. I know that's not something you'd do, but picture it anyway. Now, you feel really bad about it, but you get caught by one of your friends. You're close with Max, so let's say her. Max discovers you in the arms of the enemy, and now she's royally pissed at you. Max wouldn't do what Zack did, so we're going to skip the heat part and cut straight to the pregnancy. No one understands why you slept with the enemy, so you have a big fallout with everyone and you're forced to leave, which is when you find out that you're pregnant. The father finds out and decides to take you in to keep this humiliation private, so he takes you away with him. Now you're trapped in a house with a man you hate, you're going to have a baby, and none of your friends are there to help you out. You don't even know if they would help you out even if they knew. With me so far? Okay, now you've had your baby and you've fallen head over heels in love with him or her, you can pick whichever one you want. Suddenly, someone runs off with the baby and heads straight back to Seattle where all your friends are that hate you. The lights go out and you can't find your baby, you run into your friends again and they make you feel like crap, then when you finally find your baby, you get caught by the enemy again who you know is going to kill you while the friends that hate you run off with your innocent, unsuspecting child. Now you're behind enemy lines, your baby is in the hands of people you aren't sure you can trust anymore, and you have no prospects of escape. How would you feel?"

Jondy opened her eyes again, pouting stubbornly. "I don't know how I would feel. I don't think I would ever get myself into that situation."

Alec rolled his eyes at her. "I'm going to ignore that last part and give you a little nudge in the right direction. You'd feel lonely, depressed, and scared out of your mind. I know you can't feel that for yourself just by imagining it, but I know you could at least sympathize with someone else that's feeling it. That's how I'm sure Kay is feeling right now. Her daughter is being taken care of by Ben, who, let's face it, even with all his good qualities, is a psychotic serial killer that is angry with her and loathes the father of the baby. I'd be pretty scared for my kid, wouldn't you?" Jondy nodded grumpily, still pouting away. "That's why we've got to get her out of there, wherever she is. As bad as her mistakes have been, they're nothing compared to how great she was before. I know if you had gotten to know her back then that you might have even been friends with her. She helped Logan out a lot with his Eyes Only stuff, and she was a really good friend. If you needed her, she was there, no questions asked. She might ask some questions _after_ the whole mess was sorted out, but not while she was helping you. She constantly joked that she was running a fugitive circus in Canada. Think about it, first she had Zack, someone she had hated with a passion but couldn't blame because he had amnesia, then she got White's wife, who she became really good friends with before she died, then she came across Ben, who wanted to kill her, and to top it all off, she found Brin and Lydecker. Brin was in complete soldier mode still, and she had lots of reasons for hating Lydecker."

"We all did," Jondy commented obstinately.

"Not quite as much as she did. I found out from Max that Lydecker took advantage of her during her first heat cycle."

"What!" Jondy's mouth dropped open in unabashed horror at the thought.

"Yeah, so she wasn't exactly ecstatic at the idea of having him around, but she had no choice because let's face it, he was a useful guy. Then, after White killed Wendy and Max took Ray away, she got stuck with Ray and his aunt. She's the one who kept Zack distracted from killing Logan when he got his memory back and without her, Ben probably wouldn't have stopped killing. She's helped save a number of transgenics and she's the one that gave the cure for the virus to Logan even after Max turned away from her. I think all of that completely overshadows one night with White. I know she did more after that, but that's what started it all. I don't know about you, but I can't just leave her with the familiars. Besides, we need to get her out of there for other reasons too, if you don't like the thought of just going in there for her. The cult can use her offspring to start the Coming. We need to rescue her before they manage to repeat the whole Manticore process and start making more keys by putting her eggs in surrogates. I don't know about you, but I don't really fancy a world with just us and those inbred 'Fen'os tol' freaks."

* * *

Max sat on the kitchen table, holding an egg roll in her hand but without much interest in eating it. Today had seemed to get completely out of control, but the biggest shock to her had been when Logan admitted that he had known about Kay being in town and was even working closely with her. How could he have lied to her for over a week? It wasn't like Logan to lie to her, not now that they were together. Even if it didn't involve her, he usually made her privy to everything he was working on.

"Hey," Logan said quietly as he walked into the kitchen. The moment she looked at him, he knew she was going to be asking some questions.

"Why didn't you tell me? You've never kept something like this from me before."

"I just knew that whatever she was searching for was important to her, and she made it clear that she would talk to all of you after she was done with the search, but she didn't want any distractions while we were looking. I thought this was going to be done a week ago because I'm sure that after Matt ran the scans of Ben's fingerprints through the database, he would have come up as Timothy Ryan's killer and we would have found him right away. Then she would have had a baby to show you, and I think you would have treated her much better than it sounds like you did."

"Who told you?"

"Zack, surprisingly enough. He wasn't happy with how that reunion went down at all. Even his personal reunion with her went better than that, and that's after what he did to her. I feel bad, too, I'm the one that talked her into going to see you guys. Now she's going to be a broodmare for the cult."

Max sighed and set the egg roll down untouched next to her on the table. "As angry as I am with her, we can't leave her there."

Logan scratched the back of his ear thoughtfully. "Why _are_ you so angry with her? For some reason it seems to have grown in her absence."

"I don't know. I didn't even realize how mad I was until I saw her, and then nothing she said seemed to be a good enough explanation. She didn't even actually explain anything, although I suppose I know why now. If she had announced she was looking for her child with White, I don't think I would have reacted very well. It makes it sound like she never would have come back if the cult hadn't come after Paige."

"She probably wouldn't have. Can you blame her? You guys are a tough crowd, and she has a baby to raise. Why should she go out of her way to make her life more complicated than it already was?" After a moment of uncomfortable silence, he asked, "Has anyone talked to White again?"

She shook her head. "No, as far as I know he's still in the basement where Zack and Alec put him. I don't see why we don't just kill him. I know it's against your morals, but he's dangerous."

"There's something you might want to think about first."

"What?"

"Ray. We know for a fact that White had him before, so he must have stashed him somewhere before he started looking for Kay. We should get him set up with a safe place before we kill the only parent he has left."

"Hey, it's not my fault his father killed his mom and is dead set on causing trouble for us, so don't try and make me feel guilty. What do you suggest we do with him? If we're planning on getting Kay out, he's just going to go after her again to try and get back his place in the cult, and that's exactly what we don't want. We can't keep him locked in the basement for the rest of his natural life. I don't know about you, but I don't think we'll be able to have any fun around here until he's gone. Having a cult freak in the basement doesn't exactly get me all hot and bothered."

Logan grinned and threw away the forgotten egg roll. "Yeah, I see your point. Tell you what, as soon as he's expendable, Zack and whoever else wants to be involved can take him out of this house and do whatever they want with him off of my property. I just don't want to know any details."

Max gave one quick nod. "Fair enough. Now we've just got to find a way to track down wherever the Conclave took Kay without using electricity. I can't wait to figure that one out."

* * *

Kay had to grin when she caught a glimpse of Curtis in the next room. They must have sedated him, because he was flopped out on his back on the floor in the room to her left. _It's what the bastard deserves._ At least she had managed to inflict pain on one of them.

"Do you find something funny about this, 358?" Jacob asked as he stepped into her room and closed the door that had allowed her to see Curtis's condition. "You'll have to be punished for injuring our best marksman. We've been thinking about breaking your arms as well, just to see if you enjoy it as much as Curtis does. Unlike him, however, we won't bother to reset your arms. After your disgusting spawn are born and we're sure they are viable keys, we'll just kill you anyway. Who says we have to be hospitable?"

"Is this why you signed up for this mission? So you'd have a defenseless living thing to torture? I'll bet you lit hamsters on fire and pulled wings off flies as a kid, or maybe dangled kittens helplessly above rabid dogs. Were any of those your childhood hobbies?"

He smirked and sat down across from her. "Do you think I'm a sadist? I think you've already met the most sadistic member of our group." He glanced uneasily at the door to their right, where she knew Sate was lounging around.

She watched his face, curious about the relationship Sate had with the rest of the team. "I take it you guys don't like him?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "Why do you care?"

"Just curious. I'm sure you heard how the transgenics all hated the psy-ops, I was just curious to see if you guys hated your mentally empowered people as well. Is it that big of a deal to tell me? Who can I tell?"

"You could always tell Sate."

She chuckled and rolled her eyes. "I'm sure he already knows whether or not you guys like him, so what's the harm in telling me? What am I going to do about it?"

He studied her and shrugged. "Touché. I don't think anyone likes the guy. If we had known he was going to be on the team, we probably wouldn't have signed up. I wouldn't have even given it a second thought. I've gotta say I don't envy you at all. We may not like him, but at least he doesn't hate us in return. He just ignores us most of the time."

"You were in the room with him before you first came to talk to me. What were you talking about?"

"We were on the speaker phone with the High Priest, so I had no choice but to be in there. Thankfully, as soon as you're in a secure location, we're free of him. You're not, though. It seems that he also requested to be one of your guards, so you'll be stuck with him until the Conclave decides to kill you. Like I said, I don't envy you at all. I wonder if they'll let him be the one to kill you?"

"You're such a cheery guy. Do you do birthday parties?"

"Well, aren't you the little comedian? I don't really care, you won't be joking for long. Sate shared with us how you've been having problems with your friends. It seems that after he first met you, he started using psy-ops with mind-reading abilities to find out everything he could about you. It sounds like you haven't been the best little girl, and I also don't think you'll have anyone coming to get you. It looks like you're staying with us."

"I'm looking forward to it." She watched him walk back through the door to her left. He was right, would anyone come after her? With Sate around, she couldn't exactly get out on her own. He wouldn't even have to be within arm's reach of her to stop her, as he'd demonstrated earlier. What chance did she have? She glanced at the door that blocked him from her view. The others didn't like him, maybe she could exploit that. She didn't have long, so she would have to get going.

* * *

Brin had been sitting in the guest room with Ben ever since White had been moved to the basement. She just didn't want to face Zack right now. She knew he would be angry with her for her reaction to Kay, and she didn't want to deal with his anger at the moment. A part of her wanted to remain stubborn and let Kay get whatever was coming to her, but another part, the one that clearly remembered their friendship, wanted to get her back and revive it. She was almost ashamed of how she had acted at Crash, but she couldn't help it. Kay hadn't said anything to explain why she was gone for so long, even though now it made sense, and the fact that she didn't seem to want to offer any extra information had finally gotten to her. Now she wished she hadn't been such a bitch.

She and Ben weren't actually talking, but his presence calmed her down all the same. She had to remind herself that he had done the same thing to Kay before her life went downhill, and he hadn't even changed his mind about his treatment of her yet. Kay wasn't the only thing on her mind, however, even though she was the one who had started her train of thought. The thing that really bugged her was Zack. It wasn't that he'd lied to her, it was the fact that he had been so willing to help Kay, just like he was so willing to help Max out all the time. The more she thought about it, the more she wished she'd never become involved with him. He had been in love with Max before he killed himself for her, then he had fallen in love with Kay when he was Adam Thompson. Was he using her as a replacement for those two women? She had developed many of their characteristics while she was recovering from her reindoctrination. Maybe he wasn't even seeing her whenever they were together. She always had to work to get him to do something he didn't feel like doing, but every time Max needed him, he was right there. He had done the same thing earlier with Kay. It was very rare that he was willing to give Brin a ride to Ben's hotel, but the second Kay asked him to do it, he sprung into action. It just wasn't fair.

"Is something wrong?" Ben asked quietly, watching the mass of emotions swim across her face as she thought. The longer she sat there, the more dejected she looked, so he finally decided to interrupt and find out what was bothering her.

"Ben, if you found another woman that had a personality very similar to Kay's, would you use her as a replacement?"

"What?" That certainly wasn't what he was expecting. "No, I wouldn't. No matter how similar she is, she still wouldn't actually be Kay. Where is this coming from?"

"I've, well, I've been wondering if that's what Zack is doing. You know he loved both Max and Kay, and I've become a lot like them because they've been my closest friends. He's so quick to help them both, and he just doesn't do that for me. Am I the rebound girl?"

"I don't think he would have stayed with you so long if you were the rebound girl. Listen, I'm not good at all this relationship stuff. It's not like I've had a lot of experience, and look how it turned out. I'm babysitting Kay's baby with another man. Do you really want to be taking love advice from me?"

She smiled at him, grateful that he was at least trying to cheer her up. "Who should I talk to, then?"

"If I were you, I'd start with Zack."

"Zack? That's ridiculous, he never talks about his feelings. He'll probably just blow me off when I ask him. Maybe I should get Max to talk to him." She said the last part with such resentment in her voice that Ben's face became alarmingly stern.

"Now you're just feeling sorry for yourself. Get out there and talk to him, or I'll go get him and bring him to you."

She was shocked, Ben never usually talked so forcefully, but she knew he was right. She was just being self-pitying, and it didn't suit her. With a deep sigh, she stood up and walked out into the living room, where Zack was sitting on the couch with his elbows on his knees and his fingertips all touching as he thought. He didn't even look up until she reached him and tapped him on the shoulder. "We really need to talk."

He nodded and followed her outside, ready for her to start blowing off steam about Kay, but that's not quite what he got. "Zack, do you love me?"

Where had that come from? "Of course I do, what would make you think otherwise?"

"It's just that you always help out Max and Kay the moment they ask for it, but I nearly kill myself trying to convince you to help me out when I need it. I'm starting to think that I'm just a substitute for them. I know you used to be in love with them, so did you turn to me as a stand-in for them?"

He looked into her eyes for a long time, then slowly nodded. "Yeah, I did."

Her eyes widened, she hadn't expected him to admit it right away. "So this entire time you've been imagining someone else?" She felt like she could fall apart and start crying on the spot. She had invested a lot in this relationship, the last thing she wanted was to find out it had all been a lie.

He shook his head quickly. "No, I haven't."

"But you said—"

"I meant that I _originally_ turned to you as a substitute for them. Brin, that changed a long time ago. To be honest, I was going to break up with you nearly a month after we first started really dating. I knew that I was being really unfair to you, so I thought it would be easier if I broke it off, but while I was waiting for the right time to talk to you, I started really noticing _you_. I started paying attention to the things that made you an individual, rather than the characteristics that were similar to Max and Kay. Then I decided that I wouldn't break up with you until I was sure things wouldn't work out, and it was during that time that I really fell in love with you. Not reaffirming my feelings for the other two, but falling in love with a completely different person. I know you're not happy, because for a while our relationship wasn't real, but it is now. Brin, I couldn't be happier with anyone else than I am with you. If I felt otherwise, I wouldn't still be with you."

"But what about how eager you are to help them? You're never that quick to help me."

"I think you've just been exaggerating things since you've been given time to think everything over. You're my top priority, not anyone else. Even if I don't say it nearly enough, I love you. Can you at least forgive me for lying to you in the beginning?"

She sighed and rubbed her forehead wearily. Even with how mixed up she was feeling, she recognized that Zack was making a real effort to have an actual discussion with her about this and not be the uptight, militant ass he usually was. "Not right away, but I'll work on it. Just promise me that you won't find someone else you think is a suitable replacement for me and go after her, okay?"

He smiled and pulled her to him. "Deal."

Ben watched them share a kiss from the window as he rocked Paige gently in his arms. With so many couples around him, he felt even lonelier here than he had when was actually traveling alone. He had heard Max and Logan make up in the kitchen, he was sure Alec had won Jondy over wherever they were, and now Zack and Brin were happy again. Where was he? Stuck watching a baby. Not that he minded, he adored Paige and enjoyed spending time with her, but it wasn't the same as having an adult woman to spend time with. That used to be Kay, but as far as he was concerned, she wasn't even an option anymore. He knew the others would be starting to make plans for a rescue mission, but he wasn't quite sure he wanted to be a part of it. Did he really want to face her again? The more he thought about it, the more he confirmed that he wanted no part in rescuing her. _If she gets out, good for her, and if she doesn't, oh well._ Part of him cringed at the coldness of the thought. Did he really feel that way? He wasn't quite sure, but he knew he'd figure it out quickly when things actually went into motion.

* * *

Author's Note: Like always, please read and review! 


	13. Grim Confrontations

Disclaimer: Kay, Paige, Jacob, and Sate are mine.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 12: Grim Confrontations

"Welcome to your new home," Jacob announced cheerily as he led Kay out into a chilly, dingy, stone holding cell. She glanced back at the room behind her, which she could barely see around the side of the truck. It looked like she was going to be locked in a portion of a substantially large garage. Judging by the sound of traffic outside, she was in a major city, and from the strong chemical scent in the air, she was sure she was at least nearby a lab of some sort. _Well, I started out in a lab, it's only fair that I die in one._

Once the door was shut behind her, Kay realized that absolutely no light was able to get in. She pressed herself against the door, listening to the footsteps of the familiars walking away. Sate's were easy to pick out, his stride was considerably longer than everyone else's. She slowly felt her way around the room, mentally measuring the length of each side as she sidled along. It seemed that they were hoping she was claustrophobic, because the room was only five feet by six feet. _I guess I know which way I'll have to lay down to be comfortable._ How long was she going to be in this room? She knew it would be approximately nine months, but were they going to keep her in here the entire time? That wouldn't give her much opportunity to escape, but undoubtedly that was their goal. She stood in the very center of the room, shaking from the cold and unwilling to lie down. _These people probably won't even let me take a shower while I'm here. Hey, I don't remember running into a toilet._ Great, they really did plan on making this an unpleasant visit.

"This isn't very hospitable!" she shouted irately in the direction of the door. At least she was sure now that Paige wasn't anywhere around. She would have heard her on the truck if she were there. It felt so unfair to her that the only chance she had to hold her daughter was when Paige was unconscious. She didn't get to look into her baby's beautiful blue eyes and see if any recognition was there. By now she was probably more comfortable with Ben than she would be with her own mother.

She paced the tiny room almost obsessively until she heard returning footsteps. _Ugh, why is he coming to see me again?_ She didn't even bother to lunge forward and attack as the door whipped open. Sate would have just sent her flying back in anyway. He seemed surprised by her lack of energy when he entered the room, carrying a flashlight with him. Once the door was closed again, he turned it on.

"Captivity suits you," he remarked blandly, pointing the beam of light directly into her oversensitive eyes. "It certainly mellowed you out."

"I haven't mellowed out, I'm just saving myself," she replied stiffly, leaning against the opposite wall and crossing her arms casually. "No use burning myself out at the beginning of the race."

He smirked with amusement. "You think of this as a race? You're not going to be getting very far. You wouldn't get farther than this door. Do you know I'll be one of your guards?"

"I heard something about it."

"Well, it won't be an exciting job, but I'll make due."

"You know, guards are generally supposed to stand _outside_ the door," Kay stated coldly.

If anything, that just seemed to amuse him more. "I was supposed to make sure you weren't injured too severely during your capture. You see, they want you in perfect health until they've taken a good supply of eggs. After that, you're a toy. It's not like you'll be alone all the time. When he recovers, I'm sure Curtis will want to spend some time with you. Not only will he want to pay you back for the damage you caused to his arms, but I believe he signed up for the job in the first place because he liked your picture. Did I mention he's also a scientist? He's one of the few people in the entire building that has access both to you here and the drugs inside. If he chooses to sedate you and discover what Brother White found so interesting about you, nobody will care. He's also one of your guards, just to let you know. I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun with him once he has recovered."

Kay couldn't believe what she was hearing. Why didn't they just kill her after they took the eggs? If the babies didn't turn out to be keys, what were the chances they would have better luck on a second attempt? Besides, Paige was always out there, so why did they insist on keeping her around? _I guess they're just cruel that way._ "How many people have access to me and the drugs? You said Curtis was just one of them."

"Well, a couple other scientists have volunteered for a small portion of the guard duty. I don't think you'll need to worry about them, it's Curtis who you should try and avoid."

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked suspiciously. "If some of your cult brothers are perverts, I would think you'd have kept it to yourself so that you could enjoy my shock when I found out from experience. Whether you show it or not, I'm not stupid enough to believe you're my biggest fan."

He stepped forward and she automatically tried to back up farther, succeeding only in cramming herself awkwardly against the wall. He stopped just short of her, leaving only around half a foot's distance between them. "You're right, I'm not a fan, but I'm not a fan of Curtis either. Why let someone I don't even like enjoy you so thoroughly? I gave you that warning to give you time to prepare. If you're lucky, you'll be able to defend yourself against him when he comes for you."

"When will he be healed?" she asked nervously, wishing the wall behind her would give way just a little.

"With what you did to him? Even with his blood, that will take at least two months, so you're safe for now. I'm just wondering if they'll choose to impregnate you as well, instead of leaving it all to the surrogates. Perhaps the key needs to be nurtured inside someone of your strength."

She finally stepped to the right and walked around him, giving herself room to breathe again. "So the surrogates are going to be ordinaries?"

He turned to face her again, smiling at her blatant discomfort. "A few, yes, but many will be other familiars. They want your filthy offspring to get the best start possible. We even have a few captive transgenics. I believe we have a few female X6s, perhaps the Conclave will choose to involve them as well. I'm most curious about who the fathers are going to be. I have no doubt that they'll split the eggs up into groups and inseminate each set with different fathers to see which shows the best results. If we're lucky, the identity of the father and the blood of the surrogate won't make any difference whatsoever. It's you that counts."

She stepped back again as he started to approach her once more. "You must be a close talker, because you insist on standing right where the only part of you I can see clearly is your sternum."

He chuckled and waved the light around playfully so that the beam darted all around her face. "Actually, I just like seeing that cornered look in your eye, because you know what I can do if you try to attack me. This time, though, I'm going to follow my orders and check you over."

"What makes you more qualified than any of the others to do that?"

"You probably didn't know I went to medical school. I'm extremely useful in the operating room, I don't even need an assisting nurse. Hold out your arm." She frowned and held it out grudgingly, tensing as his long fingers gripped her wrist and began to check her pulse. "Hmm, that's a little too fast for my liking, but I'm sure with time that will slow down." She pulled her arm back quickly when he released it. "Do you have any bruises anywhere in your abdominal region?"

"No," she replied quickly, hoping he would leave it at that. Naturally, that wasn't the case.

Suddenly, she felt a powerful chill around her stomach. When she looked down, she realized that he had lifted her shirt about six inches, showing pale skin that hadn't seen the sun for well over a year, marred only by the occasional fading stretch mark still stubbornly hanging around from Paige. His head jerked lightly to the left and her body started to slowly revolve on the spot, her toes just barely out of reach of the floor. When he was satisfied that there was no bruising, his eyes moved away from her and her shirt fell back into place over her midriff as her feet landed on the solid ground again. The smile that played on his malevolent features showed how much he was taking pleasure in making her squirm, but she was starting to feel relief that that was all it was. He hadn't seriously hurt her yet, nor had he showed any signs of wanting to be the first here to do what Curtis had wanted to do. Sure, he was working as hard as he could to humiliate her, but so far it looked as though he was treating it like child's play and nothing more.

"Well, you appear to be healthy," he commented, watching her wait impatiently for him to leave. "Were there any problems when you gave birth to your recent abomination?"

"No, my beautiful little girl was born without anything going wrong, and if I may say so, she's probably the most attractive child your freaky people have ever produced. It must come from me."

Sate took a step forward, apparently just to watch her automatically move backward. "Let's not forget, had Sandeman not interfered, you would have been one of us."

In the same tone he had used, she replied, "Let's not forget, had Sandeman not interfered, I would have been killed before birth. Now, wouldn't that have been a shame?"

He walked forward again, this time stepping past her and reaching out for the door. "Not really, but I must say that you're easily the most interesting specimen Sandeman ever brought into this world." With that, he left her alone again, breathing heavily from the rush of relief that had hit her. It was rather surreal to be treated like a rag doll with which he could do what he liked without even having to touch her, which was weird enough as far as she was concerned. Out of her few confrontations with him, that had easily been the worst. She doubted her stomach would disentangle itself for days.

* * *

When Alec finally returned to Logan's house, alone this time because he still didn't want Jondy involved in this, he found everyone sitting around the kitchen table. "What's going on?"

Logan looked up at him. "We're trying to think of how we can track Kay down without being able to use my computer. I'm sure they had a special kind of transport for her, and they would have needed to get her near a hospital or a lab somewhere, but without my computer I can't even find out which way they went out of town. We're helpless until the electricity comes back on."

Alec rolled his eyes at the glum looks on everyone's faces. "Come on, wherever they took her would probably be a place with a lot of familiars, and you're going to tell me we don't have a lead? If we beat it out of him, I'm sure White can tell us of a few facilities like that. Just because he doesn't know specifically which one they took her to doesn't mean he can't narrow it down for us."

"Do you realize how long we're going to have to kick him around for information like that?" Zack commented sharply. "That could take hours."

"It would still be faster than running around in the dark with no clue what we're doing."

Max stood up, glancing apologetically at Logan. "I want a piece of this. Who else is going down?"

Alec's hand went up right away. Zack had already started to stand up when he noticed this. "What do you want to go down there for?"

"Are you kidding? That guy put an explosive against my brain stem, I've got to have a part in this."

"Fine, let's go." As soon as all three were gone, Brin, Ben, and Logan were the only ones left. Paige started crying in the back, so Ben rose and left to tend to her. Brin stared at her hands for a moment, then decided she had to get something off her mind.

"Your police scanner hasn't said anything about anyone breaking out of the city, so is it possible they're not far away? I know it would take a while, but couldn't we find out who went through the different checkpoints today? They'll still keep written copies since they can't put it all in a computer. It would be a lot of sneaking, but it would be worth it."

Suddenly, Logan's eyes lit up. "Want to take a road trip? I think Matt Sung can help us get things rolling faster."

The trio in the basement never heard Brin and Logan leave, they were too busy with White. So far they hadn't even asked him anything, they just kept beating on him. They all had their own reasons for wanting to turn him into a human punching bag. He had hurt them all in one way or another, and to each of them, their circumstances had been the worst. Max took particular pleasure in kicking him in the ribs, even though a small part of her felt bad about it. _Dammit Logan, you've turned me soft._

Ames had no idea what this was all about. As much as he hated her, he knew 452 wasn't unnecessarily violent, so why was she doing this now? They hadn't asked him anything and gave no sign that they wanted him to say anything at all. Although they were all throwing kicks and punches at him, the only part of him that really hurt was his collarbone, which 494 had managed to break almost right away. When the third X5, the one that had held him captive in Terminal City and who Kay always called Zack, kneed him in the face, he finally spat out, "What do you all want?"

The beating paused momentarily as Zack kneeled down and replied, "We want to know if there are any medical facilities that your people control."

"How should I know?"

Alec's foot connected with his left cheek, making his head snap back and causing his neck to ache horribly. "We know better than that. For some reason, your people trusted you with a lot of information, so don't give us that crap. Tell us and we'll make it easy on you."

He rolled his eyes, refusing to let them see any pain in his face. "If you had wanted to make it easy on me, you would have asked right away instead of having your fun first. Now I doubt I could take you at your word."

Max crossed her arms, moving directly in front of him so he couldn't avoid seeing her. "But you know you can trust mine. I know you don't like me, but you know that I can keep a promise. So, answer the man."

"Perhaps my memory isn't quite what it used to be."

Zack glowered at him, wishing they didn't have to deal with this miserable excuse of a human being. "A few days of no water ought to change that."

"What if I decide not to talk and die instead? Then where are you going to get your answers?"

"Maybe," Max snapped, "we should go get Ray and see if you ever let anything slip to him. It may not hurt you much to go a few days without food and water, but I don't think Ray is strong enough for that yet, do you?"

Ames stared up at her, trying to read her expression to see whether or not she was bluffing. "You tell me to trust you, and then in the same breath you tell me that you'll torture my son if I don't cooperate. Does that sound like something to inspire trust in me? Why don't you just threaten Paige's life too, that way you'll have both of my children's lives as leverage?"

"It's not a bad idea. We don't plan on putting a lot of effort into you, so if you don't help us out, you leave your kids without a father. In Ray's case, you're leaving him an orphan. That's how it could turn out for Paige too if you decide not to help us, because without your help, we won't be able to get Kay back and I'm sure the Conclave will eventually kill her once they've exhausted her uses. I realize you don't like her, but it sounds to me like you love your children. I think that's better incentive than anything."

Ames gritted his teeth determinedly. As long as he didn't say anything, they wouldn't be able to kill him. Who else would they be able to get that information from? "I'm not telling you anything."

Zack pulled up his sleeves, smiling grimly. "Wrong answer."

* * *

When Kay heard footsteps returning again, she was relieved to hear that they weren't Sate's. Whoever was coming was of regular height. Just as she thought, it wasn't Sate who opened the door, but Jacob. "It's time to get started."

She stared blankly at him as he approached, holding his gun out in front of him the entire time. "Start what?"

"How long did you think we were going to wait before taking your eggs? We want this all done with as soon as possible, then we can happily be free of you."

"Isn't your job supposed to be done? And I didn't think you'd be able to do anything until the electricity came back on?" she asked as he shoved her out the door.

"The electricity just came back about fifteen minutes ago. As for me thinking I was done, originally yes, that's what was supposed to happen," he responded with a slight edge of disappointment in his voice, "but after you pulled that stunt with Curtis, I've been assigned guard duty in his place until he can take over again."

"Sorry, I know you wanted to be free of Sate."

"You're not sorry," he scowled.

"Actually, yeah, I am. I feel bad for anyone who has to work with him. Has he ever given you the slight impression that he's a Dracula wannabe?" she asked lightly.

She could have sworn his breathing changed abruptly behind her, like he was trying to stifle a laugh. "I'd never thought about it that way, but yeah, I can see where you'd get that idea. I've always personally felt he was the son of an Amazon."

She gazed around as they headed through a door on the right adjacent wall from hers, which led them directly into a long hallway glowing with fluorescent light. She couldn't see much through the open doors because they were walking so quickly, but she was starting to get the idea that this was a college setting. Most of the people she caught brief glimpses of were in their late teens and early twenties. "Sure, an Amazon that managed to screw a poltergeist. He must have been a really gangly teenager when he hit his big growth spurt. You'd think he would have a permanent dent in his forehead from the amount of times he ran into doors before he adjusted to his height."

This time Jacob allowed himself a small chuckle. It felt dangerous to be joking about Sate like this, especially when no one else on the team dared to do it, but who cared if they were caught? He could just blame her. "We shouldn't be making fun of him like this," he said in a mock scolding voice. "He's really a great guy."

"Sure, I'll bet he's a riot at parties. He could just flip up the girls' skirts without having to lift a finger. It's probably the most he's ever seen of a woman. Who would be brave or dumb enough to date him? 'I'm having a great time tonight, would you like to come home and sleep in my coffin with me?' It almost makes you feel bad for the guy."

Jacob bit down on his lip to keep from bursting out laughing. "Turn here," he managed to choke out as they reached the ninth door on the right. She walked straight in, grinning when she turned around and saw the laughter in his eyes. He forced it away quickly, he couldn't be seen joking with their hostage. "Someone will be in with you shortly, and don't bother trying to escape. If you can bust down this door, you deserve to get away."

"You know," she said thoughtfully, tilting her head to the side as she studied him. "You look a little like a red-haired John Travolta. Has anyone ever told you that?"

He raised an eyebrow in surprise. "No, actually, I've never heard that one before. By the way, you're supposed to put on that gown on the table." He closed the door behind him, shaking his head. She had spent every second she had with him earlier insulting him, and now she was complimenting his looks and joking around with him? That didn't make much sense to him. _I suppose if you're made in a test tube, you're more likely to come out a little bit bipolar._

Kay smiled to herself as she sat on the cold, sterile table in the middle of the room and started to change. Jacob wasn't a bad guy, he actually seemed to be fairly nice despite his earlier coldness, which meant he would be easier to fool than the others. They already had a common ground; they both hated Sate. If she played her cards right and managed to have some real conversations with him, she might be able to sucker him into being her friend. That had always been one of the reasons she was so good at her missions for Manticore. She could convince her target to become her new best friend if she chose to. For now, her target was Jacob. He seemed to be the only person other than Sate who would stay in the same room alone with her, and Sate had made it clear that he wasn't an option.

When the door opened again, a young woman entered with two armed familiars that Kay recognized from the alley. As the younger, unarmed woman walked around, Kay had the distinct feeling that she was also a familiar. "All right, let's get started," the woman said quietly, pulling on her glove. Kay sighed and gripped the starchy cloth of her gown unhappily. She didn't want to do this at all.

* * *

Ben lounged around the kitchen, rocking Paige as he walked along. She seemed to have a terrible headache because she just couldn't stop bawling. The crying didn't annoy him, though, as it would have a week ago. Instead, he empathized with her. He knew exactly how she was feeling, he'd been suffering through the same pain for nearly a year. If he wasn't mistaken, however, the lump was already shrinking. Apparently her blood was just as apt as the rest of the transgenics to heal her quickly. About a half hour ago everything electrical in the house had come blaring back on, giving him the task of running around and shutting everything off before Paige's headache worsened. He would have thought that the others would have come up at the racket, but he had the feeling they were busy. From the sound of it, Max, Zack, and Alec were still in the basement with White and they didn't appear to be making much progress, but he had no clue where Brin and Logan were. He didn't have to think about it long, though.

"Where have you guys been?" he asked immediately when he heard the front door open. He had been alone with Paige for hours.

"On a wild goose chase," was Brin's grumbling reply. "You wouldn't believe what a waste of time that entire trip was."

Ben walked into the living room, still gently bobbing Paige in his arms. "What were you doing?"

Logan slid off his jacket and hung it up. "Finding out personally from the sector police at the checkpoints what vehicles passed through today. The most we've come up with is that they were transporting Kay in a semi with the Lethil & Prowdovet logo on the side. The problem is that they went through every single checkpoint in town, and our sector police are so incompetent that practically none of them copied down the time they went through. The only checkpoints they didn't go through were the ones leading out of town, so we're sure they're still in the city, but they could be anywhere. I just feel bad for wasting Matt's time like that. Even though he could flash a badge and get us information much faster than we would have been able to on our own, we're no closer to finding them than we were before. It also appears that they found their destination before the blackout ended."

Ben glanced at the paper that contained the list of the sectors the truck had passed through. All but the ones leading out of the city were checked off, and only three had times next to them. The truck had woven through the sectors, making sure to hit every checkpoint around every sector. None had been passed through twice and there were no times to tell them which one had been passed through last. "You know," he said quietly, staring hard at the paper, "what if they came back to this sector? I know it's no more likely than any other sector, but it would be a smart thing to do. Are there any labs around here?"

"No," Logan replied. "Not an independent one, anyway. The college in this sector has a lab next to it, but there's way too many college students running around that place to hide her in. Besides, the place is only half built. Construction stopped after the Pulse hit. I think some volunteers turned the unfinished portion into a gigantic garage so the students didn't have to park outside, provided they even had vehicles. Where would they be able to hide Kay?"

Brin shook her head, her eyes lighting up as she thought everything over. "If it was unfinished and the volunteers weren't part of the original construction crew, then how do we know something couldn't have been added on that wasn't in the plans? For all we know, the familiars could have taken that place over a long time ago. They may have been able to build something that would hold a prisoner if they ever felt so inclined. Do you think we should run over and take a look? Maybe we'll see something useful." She looked at the squirming baby in Ben's arms. "Maybe just Logan and I should go again, that kid just doesn't respond to anyone but you."

Ben thrust Paige out quickly. "I've really got to get out and spend some time away from her for once. You're not bad with her, she'll be happy enough with you until I come back. I just really need a break."

Brin looked dubiously down at the writhing baby. "Fine, but you owe me." She took Paige hesitantly into her arms and watched them leave, wishing she could go again. She liked feeling like she was doing something useful. _I'd better go see how far those three have gotten._ She opened the basement door and slowly made her way down the stairs, cringing when she caught sight of White. Could he possibly be any more bloody and still be conscious? "Anything yet?" she called out nervously, unsure if that would disturb their rhythm and make them turn on her for interrupting them.

Zack sighed and stepped back. "Nothing yet, but he can't last much longer like this. We'll break him soon enough."

"Good luck," White growled, spitting a mouthful of blood onto Zack's shoe. Zack responded automatically by kicking him in the face again, then he turned back to Brin.

"What have you been up to?"

"Nothing, I'm just babysitting Paige for now." Everyone stopped momentarily to take a break, giving White the time to look up at Paige. Brin saw his eyes soften ever so slightly, so she thought that now was the time to catch him by surprise if she was ever going to do it. "Ben and Logan went to that half-built college to look for Kay." She watched as his head jerked up in alarm. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"Your friends are going to get themselves killed," he declared in the same tone of voice he would have used to say, "It's going to rain today."

Max raised an eyebrow and looked down at him. "So, is that one of your freaky cult's bases? It makes sense, a college would have a lab. Maybe it's a college form of their kiddie school. Maybe it's chock full of familiars too."

"Well, Ben and Logan should be able to at least tell us something when they get back." At least, maybe they'd have something to share if White's prediction didn't come true.

* * *

Author's Note: Please read and review! 


	14. Making Plans

Disclaimer: Kay, Paige, Sate, and Jacob are mine. Not a bad bunch if I do say so myself. Except for Sate, he's a bit creepy.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 13: Making Plans

Kay wasn't quite sure how she felt when the young woman, who she'd learned was Lucia Madigan, told her that she could get dressed again and led the other two familiars out of the room. On one hand, she was relieved the procedure was over, but on the other, she knew this meant that it wouldn't be long before several other women were pregnant with the embryos that she was meant to carry. She had no idea how many they were planning on creating, but she could have as many as fifty children in nine months. Of course, they would all be killed right away, but it didn't make their existences any less important.

Jacob knocked on the door a few minutes later. "Are you ready?"

She leaned against the table, wishing they would just shoot her and get it over with. "Yeah, I'm ready."

He opened the door and stepped in, taking in her sullen appearance. "Come on, let's get going." She walked towards him, half smiling when his fingers tightened on his gun. She had no intention of attacking him, that wouldn't exactly help her cause. She didn't even slow down as she passed him, she just continued straight out the door. He turned and rushed out after her to make sure she headed in the right direction. When he was walking along comfortably behind her, he commented, "I'm surprised you didn't try to attack me. After all, we both know you're quite a bit stronger than me."

"What's the point? I wouldn't even get twenty feet before I'd have thirty of you people on me, and even I can't deal with that. I may as well keep around the only person I can joke around with. I haven't seen any of your friends even show potential for a sense of humor."

"I guess I'm supposed to take that as a compliment."

"You can take it however you want," she replied wearily. She just wanted to be alone again. For some reason that procedure had made the reality of her situation come crashing down on her. Just before they reached her cell, she turned around to face him, forcing him to stop before he ran into her. "Can I ask you something?"

He stepped backward, unsure what to think. "I guess," he replied tentatively.

"What do you really think getting rid of the ordinaries will accomplish? What's in it for you? You'll have a full out war on your hands with the transgenics, and once they're gone, if you can beat them, you'll have no one to be stronger than. All you'll have managed to do is seriously cut down on the population of the world. I'm sure some races will even be completely wiped out. I don't think I've ever seen an oriental familiar. Then you won't be superior to anything. There'll be millions of jobs that you won't have enough people to fill, and what about the children who haven't been initiated yet? Couldn't the Coming kill them? Besides that, there's going to be billions of bodies that you'll have to find something to do with."

Jacob gestured for her to walk into the cell before he bothered to answer. "The war with the transgenics was never meant to be, but seeing as how it's inevitable, I don't think it will be much of an issue. I don't think you fully appreciate how many of my people are out there. We outnumber your kind twenty to one. After that, I think the deaths of the ordinaries will be a relief. We've been hiding for so many years, it will finally be our chance to live freely. I don't think you'll need to worry about races being decimated, we've managed to include so many in our breeding program that I doubt anyone's been left out. Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they don't exist. As for the children, I've worried about that as well, but we have to put our faith in the strength of our blood."

Something about the look in his eyes when he talked about the children aroused her curiosity. "Do you have kids that haven't been initiated yet?"

He glanced down at his left hand, where she noticed the wedding ring on his finger for the first time. "My wife is pregnant with our third child, which means it will be my first baby to live. Naturally my wife will die in the Coming, as was to be expected, but my baby won't even be six months old if they set it off right when your offspring are born. Of course I worry about that, but if he or she doesn't make it then I'll just have to pick up and move on."

Kay couldn't help thinking that was a very cold way of looking at things, but she bit back the response she dearly would have loved to give. _Be nice, Kay, otherwise you'll never get him to trust you._ "I wouldn't envy you then. I couldn't imagine that kind of pain."

Why was he even having this conversation with her? He had absolutely no idea. "Are you thinking about your daughter?"

Kay smiled inwardly. He was so easy to manipulate, she knew exactly how she could steer the conversation in the direction she wanted. "Yeah, I was just wondering how she was doing. Before you guys caught me, she had hit her head on the ground and was unconscious. I hope they got her to wake up. I shouldn't bother thinking about it though, it's not like I'll ever find out. So, are you hoping for a boy or a girl for your first kid? I'll bet you're hoping for a boy." She knew she couldn't keep the discussion depressing for long or he wouldn't want to talk to her again.

Just as she thought, that brightened him right up. "Yeah, I'd like a boy first. A girl might be better though, because for some reason girls have always been able to survive the initiation easier. It must be the fact that the key is a girl. Apparently the virus gets along with females better. Why am I even talking to you about my kid?"

She shrugged carelessly. "I don't know, you tell me. By the way, what do I do about a bathroom? Am I supposed to knock on the door and announce every time I need to take a leak?"

He rolled his eyes at her choice of words. "Very ladylike of you to ask that way. Yeah, I guess you just knock. Don't share that much detail, though."

"Fine, be a prude. Can I just go now so I don't have to ask Sate later? I think he'd pull some kind of trick on me, like making the toilet try and buck me off."

He grinned in spite of himself and gestured for her to follow him. "Come on, let's go before you put any more weird images in my head."

* * *

As they neared the college, Ben could tell right away that they wouldn't be able to get too close. One of the familiars from earlier was sitting outside of the garage Logan had mentioned smoking a cigarette. "Just go around the block," he ordered quietly, trying to get a look inside the garage. The three main doors were closed, but a side door just meant for a person was open and he managed to catch a glimpse of a semi inside. "I think she's in there," he told Logan, wishing he could have gotten a better look. "Go around the block again and I'll see if I can catch the logo."

Logan circled the building, studying the people as he passed. _Strange how everyone here seems to be in great shape,_ he thought sarcastically. Even though he had never taken a close look before, now he couldn't believe he hadn't realized what this place was. There wasn't a single overweight person in sight, or anyone who looked overly skinny. It was almost boring to look at a scene with such little diversity. He averted his eyes quickly when a girl walking along the sidewalk glanced their way suspiciously. The last thing they needed was to find themselves surrounded by an entire school of hormone-driven familiars. When they reached the front of the garage again, he pulled over to the side of the road and pretended to be looking for something in the back seat. Ben stared unabashedly out the window, not caring who saw him. Familiars weren't much faster than typical humans, they could easily get away if he saw them coming early enough.

"Hey, I thought I saw her!"

Logan looked up, peering through the door in the distance. "Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, but it was only for a second. Some guy was walking behind her with his gun out, so they must have been moving her somewhere. They weren't heading towards the main building, though. It looked like they were going farther into the garage."

"I wonder if they built a containment area into the wall of the garage somewhere? This side doesn't look like it's very thick to me, so it must be on the other side."

"Go around again, I'll see if I can spot anything."

Once again, Logan drove around the block, slowing when they reached the other side of the garage. "This must be the side that the original construction workers made, because it looks the same as the main building. It's very possible that they could have made it double layered and hid a holding cell in there somewhere. How would they hide the door on the inside?"

"If this place only has familiars, why would they have to? You can probably see the door clear as day from the inside."

Logan immediately aimed his Aztec for home. "Don't even think about it right now."

Ben looked at him innocently. "Think about what?"

"You were thinking of going in there right now to see if the door was visible, I could see it all over your face. Not that I blame you, it's going to be hard enough to run in there and find that door if it happens to actually be hidden, but it's just not a good idea without backup and a better idea of what we could run into. We still don't know what made Kay stop moving like that. If they have a telekinetic person in there, we have to be prepared. I think we're going to need everyone for this, even though I'm sure Max will make me stay home." He sounded so sarcastic when he said that that Ben looked at him with his eyebrows raised.

"That's probably for the best, you know. Now that the electricity is back on, you can use your computers to help keep an eye on things. Besides, someone is going to need to watch Paige."

"I've never so much as held the kid, and I'm not especially good with children. I don't have any natural instincts when it comes to them. By the time I'm done with them, I'm on the verge of suicide."

Ben smiled briefly as they pulled onto Logan's road. "Yeah, that's how I felt when I first got Paige. I'd never been in the same room with a baby before, and suddenly I had to feed her and change her diapers. That last part was a learning experience, I have to say. After a while though, it wasn't such a big deal. I figured it all out and I started to get used to her. She's not too bad for a baby."

"Maybe not before, but she has a head injury now. You know, I know that nobody is going to like this, but nothing says we have to go after Kay immediately. They'll want to keep her around at least until the first litter, excuse the term, is born. They'll be expecting an attack right now, but if we give them enough time to think that no one is going to bother coming after her, which also gives us time to come up with a solid plan, I think our job will be much easier. I think we should at least wait a month, but I wouldn't let it go much longer."

"Why not?"

"I don't know if you know who Gem is or not, but she's an X5 who had a baby because of the Manticore breeding program. I guess she was one of the few that they never got rid of her heat cycles for study purposes, and she said about six weeks after she stopped breastfeeding her baby, she came back into heat. From what I know, that happened with a few other X5s as well, so we have to assume it will happen with Kay. She's already been separated from Paige for a little over a week, which gives us four perfectly safe weeks, then another one where we'll have to be nervous. We don't know if it could happen earlier, but I don't think any of us want her there when she's in heat."

Ben had never thought about that. Kay probably wouldn't even be thinking about it either, but she would have to if anything happened and they got her out afterwards. How would the others react? How would _he_ feel about it? It was just a heat cycle, he knew better than to take anything a female X5 did during that time seriously, but would it make some distant part of him even angrier with her? That was the last thing he needed, he already wasn't looking forward to having her around again if their plan succeeded. He was sick and tired of dealing with emotions, but having her around would bring out the most painful feelings inside him that he'd ever experienced. That's how it had been last time.

"What are you thinking about?" Logan asked tentatively. He had watched Ben's expression grow darker and darker, and he really didn't think it was a good idea to let it go on any longer. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with a self-destructive X5. Ben wasn't just any X5 either; if he blew up, he was bound to take someone out with him. _My timing always has been impeccable._

"Just wondering how everyone would respond to Kay having another fling with the enemy. She screwed things up enough last time, I don't think Max and Brin would be too happy if it happened again."

Logan shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he pulled over in front of his house. "Well, I know it's not my place to say it, but I think everyone's being a little harsh on Kay. After all, it's not like she just decided to sleep with someone for the hell of it. She thought you were dead, everyone else thought she was dead too so there was no chance of anyone coming to get her, and she knew the Conclave would kill her. Things didn't really become fubar until after Zack pulled his little stunt. Then she got pissed at him and things went out of control after that. I know he regrets it and he's probably the only one out of all of you that is even on halfway decent terms with her anymore, but if it weren't for him, things wouldn't have been so bad. If he hadn't done that, I think Brin and Max would have been able to get over that one mistake and move on. Listen, I've been with her for the past several days and she still seems like the same person I remember. She was more stressed than usual, but considering the circumstances, I think that was to be expected. After hearing from Zack what went on in Crash when she tried to see everyone again, I really can't imagine what she's going through right now. It's like everything is against her, almost to the point of being ridiculous. If it weren't for Paige, I wouldn't blame her if she had killed herself a long time ago. When we get her out of there, I think I'm going to get her to tell me about everything so that I can write a book. It would probably make enough money to fund Eyes Only for another sixty years, providing I'm still alive at that time."

Ben smiled slightly. He could see what Logan meant. If he weren't so involved in the situation, he would probably be overwhelmed by the amount of things that had happened to all of them, not just Kay, in the past couple years. He himself had been a serial killer, killed by his own sister after asking her to do it so he wouldn't be recaptured by the undercover genetic engineering operation that had created him, who got him anyway and brought him back to life, then blew up so he escaped again and he found himself falling in love with the one person who he had hated more than any other as a child. Next second, he was "killed" again and nursed back to health by a man who had an implant attached to his brain stem to make him incredibly powerful and this time he found himself raising the product of the woman he had loved and the man who was dead set on killing his kind. How had he ended up in this damned soap opera anyway?

When they entered the house, they found everyone sitting around the living room. Paige was sound asleep in Brin's arms, Brin and Alec looked like they were about to doze off at any moment, and Max and Zack both seemed to be lost in thought. Max smiled when they walked in, appearing every bit as weary as she felt. "So, did you guys see anything?"

Logan nodded. "They're definitely holding her at the college, but it's absolutely jammed with young familiars on the alert. It wouldn't surprise me if they all knew she was there, even if they're not all directly involved. Did you get anything out of White?"

"Well, he admitted that the college was dangerous, which you already found out, but other than that we didn't get anything. We decided to stop kicking him around for now, though. If we kept it up much longer, we probably would have killed him."

Ben made his way automatically over to Brin so he could see Paige. She didn't even wake up when he lifted her out of Brin's arms, as though she knew that he was the one picking her up. "How long has she been asleep?"

"Maybe ten minutes," Brin slurred groggily. "So, when are we going in?"

Logan glanced around the room, feeling slightly staggered that an entire room of X5s were staring at him, waiting for him to respond. "Well, I don't think we should do it too soon. I realize that she's in danger, but it's not immediate. They'll want to keep her alive until the first round of keys is born, and if we attack now, they'll be expecting it. I think we should wait a safe amount of time before going in after her. A month would probably be enough, and in the meantime we should be gathering every bit of information we can. That'll be much easier now that the electricity is back on, and you guys can easily do any footwork. Seeing as how we're dealing with familiars, we'll need to make this plan as foolproof as possible. That way," he glanced with some amusement in Zack's direction, "we won't have to rely on any kind of luck to get us through."

Zack didn't look very happy about Logan's plans. "I don't want to leave her there so long. These people are messed up, who knows what could happen to her while she's there? Tinga's heat cycles came back about two to three weeks after Case was born and Kay is past the two week mark."

Logan's eyes widened in alarm. "Two to three weeks? Gem's and some of the other X5s' didn't come back until six weeks after they stopped breastfeeding."

Alec sat up, frowning down at his hands in his lap. "What about those pills we always took in Manticore? We managed to get a lot of those out with us, so Gem has been taking them all this time, but I don't think Kay ever bothered with them once we were out. They were supposed to regulate everything in our bodies so that we were always running perfectly, and I think the X5s that had heat cycles used them almost as a birth-control pill. It's not like it was preventing them from getting pregnant or anything, but it kept their cycles perfectly regular so that Manticore could schedule missions around them. If I remember right, they can't take them while they're pregnant, so they all just picked up on the pack where they had left off as soon as they were done breastfeeding so that the hormones in the pills wouldn't affect the babies. Everyone was always working along the same schedule with those pills so that nobody had to figure out who got what pill that day, so I'm sure they would all get their heat cycles in the same period of time after they started taking the pills again. Without anything regulating her, Kay could have her heat cycle any time her body felt like it. It may not necessarily be the same as Tinga's, but it more than likely won't be the six weeks everyone else has been having. She could go into heat tomorrow for all we know."

Zack groaned out loud in frustration. He knew that most of Logan's plan was sensible; if they wanted to have a good shot at succeeding, they needed to take the time to come up with a really organized plan, but how long could they wait? Kay had been on those pills before, so her body might still be sticking to that schedule even though nothing was forcing her to stay on it. She could very well go longer than six weeks before going into heat. "Ok, here's what we're going to do. First, I think everyone could use some sleep, so that's first on the agenda. Tomorrow, we're going to start casing the college and Logan, you're going to get us the plans for the building. Even if they don't include the room she's in, we'll be able to see vulnerable areas of the building. What we really need is for someone to be able to get inside and identify the people who are guarding her. That's going to be the tricky part."

"I'll do it," Max said automatically. She was used to this kind of thing with Logan's Eyes Only missions, so how hard could it be?

"Absolutely not," Zack snapped immediately. "Everyone knows who you are, you're the last person we should be sending in. Ben and Alec are too recognizable as well, so they're out too. I've had serious confrontations with two familiars before that easily could have described me to the Conclave, so I'm not much of an option either. I think Brin's the one to do this mission."

Brin was wide awake in an instant. "Me? I'm supposed to go into a familiar-infested school without backup?"

"What about Jondy?" Max said quickly. "I know she was caught by White's men once, but I doubt he considered her of enough importance to send her description to the Conclave. True, she's not Kay's biggest fan, but I think she'd go in if it was just as Brin's backup."

Alec cringed doubtfully. "I don't know about that, her feelings run pretty deep."

Brin frowned and crossed her legs, knowing that Alec wouldn't be happy with what she was about to say. "Actually, I think _I_ should be the backup." When both Alec and Zack started to stand up to protest, she held up a hand and signaled for them to sit back down. "Listen to me, it makes more sense. Although I'm not as well known as the rest of you, I was at the big fight too. I'm sure plenty of those college familiars were there as well, so some of them might recognize me. It's easier to disguise Jondy than it is to disguise me. You could dye my hair if you really wanted to, but I still think I'm a pretty recognizable girl. If we changed Jondy's hair and really went nuts with makeup, we could turn her into an entirely different person."

"Brin," Zack admonished, as though he were speaking to a young child, "Jondy's pregnant!"

"Your point being what exactly? She's still early in the pregnancy, she's perfectly capable of doing this. As long as she's careful she shouldn't have to worry about getting caught by the familiars. I think our biggest concern is going to be convincing her to do it. I'll be the backup and I swear I won't let anything happen to her, but she's better suited for the actual job."

Alec sighed and opened his hands in defeat. "You've got a point, Jondy's all geared up for an infiltration gig. I'll talk to her tonight and see what she says. I need it to be clear though that I'm not going to push it; if she's not interested, I'm not going to bend over backwards trying to talk her into it. If it becomes that much of an issue, I'll go in there myself, and to hell with anyone who recognizes me. We're all at risk at least a little, even Jondy."

"If we're going to do this," Zack said, sounding slightly disgruntled, "I think both Alec and I will be backup as well. No matter who is going to be the main infiltrator, Brin or Jondy, we need to be as careful as possible. We're really going to need everyone in top form for this, so we don't want to end up in a fight while we're just casing the place. I guess we'll have to wait to see what Jondy says before we really get going with this, so I suggest we all head home and get some sleep."

Everyone mumbled their agreement and rose to their feet. Max watched as everyone headed out the door, then she turned and followed Ben as he took Paige back to the guest room. She could hear Logan moving around in the kitchen, he apparently knew how badly she wanted to talk to Ben. "Hey," she said quietly as Ben started designing another pillow nest at the head of the bed.

He turned and smiled when he saw her leaning against the doorframe. Once he was sure Paige was comfortable, he sat down on the edge of the bed and looked up at Max. "We really haven't had a chance to talk," he commented. "It's been kind of a busy day."

Max rolled her eyes and sauntered in to sit on a wooden chair near the bed. "Tell me about it. It's so weird, you've been alive all this time and you never came to see me, not even when you were on the farm. Don't get me wrong, I'm not mad at you, but it was really hard on me when you asked me to kill you and it just seems so out of character for you to stay away and let me go on believing you're dead. How come you didn't at least call?"

Ben rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Well, it was never really the right time. I did come to Seattle once to see you with Kay, but that definitely wasn't the right time. That blind friend of your dog pal was killed, we even saw it happen. After that, things became pretty busy, and then of course I died again, which didn't help matters at all." She didn't smile at the joke, so he continued as though he hadn't said it. "Anyways, then I spent a long time recovering from getting shot in the head, and after that I just started moving around on my own. I wasn't really ready to be around you guys again. Even right now is much earlier than I expected to see any of you again."

Max sighed and glanced at the ceiling, not wanting to see his face when he answered her. "You're back to doing your same old stuff, aren't you?"

Even though it hadn't happened with anyone else, hearing her say the words made him feel a sharp pang of guilt shoot through his insides. It had been his extracurricular activities that forced her to make such a tough decision last time, and now he was back to doing it again. He didn't even want to know what was running through her head. "Yeah, pretty much. I'm not quite on the same level I used to be, but I still do it. Don't ask me why, either, because I know you were going to."

"No, actually, I was going to ask you why you stopped before. That had to have been a good six or seven month span you went without killing, and that's not even including the time you spent healing. Why did you stop during that time?"

"Isn't that kind of obvious? I suddenly had other things to do with my time."

She looked sternly at him, wishing he would at least give a better answer than that. "If I thought that all it took to get you to stop killing was to sit you down and play some Scrabble or Monopoly with you to keep you busy, I would have done it a long time ago and you wouldn't have died the first time."

He half-smiled indulgently, but it slipped off his face almost too quickly to be seen. "You know that's not what I meant. When I was on the farm, I had Kay. I can't really explain farther than that, but I don't have her now so I went back to my old habits."

"So I take it you know everything she did?"

"Yeah, I do. We talked at the big fight, which pretty much convinced us both that it was over. It probably wasn't more than two hours later that she found out she was pregnant."

Max bit her lip nervously, she could already see a dangerously dark expression coming to his face. "Hey, why don't you tell me about your adventures with the little rugrat here? It sounds like you've had your hands full." She smiled when he immediately started out with, "Oh, it's not that bad," and continued on to regale her with his various experiences in the world of babysitter-hood. As he delved animatedly into his time with Paige, she realized how different he was right now than from what she remembered. Her only memories of him as a grown man were from when he was still going strong with his killing spree. Back then, his eyes had always glittered with the dark look that had threatened his features only moments ago. Now, however, he seemed so much more normal. It was like she was in a room with two different men. One of them was a happy, relaxed, curious man that reminded her strongly of the creative boy she had known at Manticore, but the other was a dark, frustrated, frightened, angry, confused child that didn't know how to cope with the trials in the world around him, so he lashed out in the only way he knew how: very violently. The only thing she couldn't quite figure out was which one was he? Who was really Ben? Every last fiber in her body hoped that it was the man talking to her right now, but the tortured, aggressive soul she had met two years ago had seemed just as real. Her eyes wandered to the fitfully slumbering baby sleeping next to him. She just hoped that no matter which personality came out on top, that innocent little girl wouldn't get caught in the crossfire.

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Author's Note: As always, please read and review! 


	15. Surveillance

Disclaimer: We all know who I own and who I don't.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 14: Surveillance

Jondy tapped her knuckles on Logan's kitchen table, wishing desperately that she wasn't there. Despite what he had said, Alec had ended up basically begging her to help them with the rescue mission. She was the best candidate for the job, even he couldn't deny that. Of course, that had been a week ago. The expanse of time in between had been spent studiously watching the younger familiars at the school to see what the most popular style was. That had resulted in the dyeing of her hair, changing it to an odd blend of black, deep auburn, and a rich chocolate brown. Her hair seemed to transform every time she moved into a different level of light. At least no one had told her to cut it, she absolutely loved the length that her hair was now, sweeping just over halfway down her back. Just so that she wasn't the only one being forced to change her hair, she convinced both Brin and Max to alter theirs as well. Brin's hair was now just long enough to cover her barcode, while Max had gotten a perm. Jondy had been pleased with the modification until Ben commented that that was how Max had looked when he had first seen her again as an adult, even though her hair was longer now. It was almost like cheating; Max hadn't really tried something new, she had gone back to something she used to have.

The rest of the week had been pretty much wasted. An epidemic of brownouts had swarmed through the city, locking down sectors nearly every other hour, making it extremely challenging to actually begin their plan because it meant that so many of the students at the college skipped their wasted classes and lounged on the lawn of the school. How could Jondy be expected to sneak through them? It would be too much of a distraction even if she did manage to get to where Kay was and examine her guards. It wasn't exactly easy to spy through a doorway discreetly with hundreds of curious young men and women around, particularly ones that were well trained to look for anything suspicious even in a neutral situation.

All of that had been a problem until today. Because of the blackout and consequent brownouts, spring break had been postponed for them until the city was declared to be fully functioning again, which had happened just that morning. Max and Logan had immediately driven past the college and sure enough, the students were practically running away from it with glee. Very few students stuck around, but even they didn't spend much time on the grounds. Now it was perfectly safe for them to start checking out the guards and just what the situation was in that garage. After a heated debate that lasted for practically the remainder of the morning, it was decided that Zack would be the immediate backup for her, while Brin would stay in the car. That decision had to be made when Brin started subconsciously becoming as protective of Jondy's pregnancy as Alec was. The last thing they needed was for Brin to overreact and try to protect her when it really wasn't necessary. Zack was more objective than Brin, so everyone finally decided that he was the best person for her to go in with.

"Are you ready?" Zack asked as he entered the kitchen, straightening his hood around his face.

"I've been ready for a while, it's the rest of you that have been taking forever. This really shouldn't be that hard, and I can tell right now that you've got some kind of handgun shoved into the back of your pants, so I feel pretty secure. Let's just get this thing done with so you guys can get going with your rescue thing."

He rolled his eyes as they walked out to the car to wait for Brin. She had just been getting out of the shower, more than likely after using up the rest of Logan's hot water, but they knew she would be out quickly. She didn't need to get dressed up for anything, all she had to do was throw on the nearest clothes she could reach and come out, which was exactly what she did. They didn't have to wait long for her, and before they knew it they were headed for the college, leaving Max, Logan, Ben, and Alec to hang around Logan's house.

When they pulled up in front of the college, the entire lawn was empty. Jondy sighed with relief, this was going to be easier than she had thought. "If we go right to that little walkthrough door over there, no one will be able to see us from the windows on the building, and you can keep a lookout for anyone heading out onto the yard. This shouldn't take too long."

Zack nodded, which surprised her because he generally liked to protest against her ideas. He always had, even though she never really knew why. Maybe it was just his C.O. domination urges. No matter how good her ideas were, he'd say no just to prove he still held the power. They crossed the lawn silently, not seeing a single person along the way. Jondy paused outside of the door, hoping that it wasn't noisy when it was opened, but her desire to finish this as quickly as possible overrode her concerns and she gently turned the knob. The door opened easily and quietly enough, which was good because she could hear voices inside the garage. She poked her head tentatively around the corner to peer through the tiny slot that she'd created when she opened the door slightly. Four people were sitting just outside a perfectly visible door nearly in the dead center of the opposite wall. There was one woman with shoulder-length mousy brown hair, and three men, all of whom looked as though they could have been related. They were all approximately the same height, but two had brown hair and one had black. They were all whispering excitedly together like little kids in a toy store. It wasn't until someone came out of the main building that she knew this wasn't going to be good.

"Zack, isn't he supposed to be dead? Isn't he the one who caused all that trouble with the psy-ops in Terminal City?"

Zack leaned around her to peek through the crack. He blinked furiously several times, but every time he opened his eyes, Sate was still there. "From what Max said, I would have expected this guy to be in pieces in a coffin. I can't believe he got away from the X2s." He pulled his head back sharply as one of the guards glanced in their direction, but the flow of the conversation never changed, so he must not have noticed anything out of the ordinary. After a reasonable amount of time, Jondy went back to looking in at the guards, wondering what they were talking about. Not only did that become clear within a few minutes, but what followed made her remain glued to her spot.

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__

A week. How can it possibly have been that long? Kay thought wonderingly as she paced her cell again. It was the only thing she ever did, and she was starting to feel just as stir crazy as she had been back when she was living with Ames. It was worse now though because she had absolutely nothing to entertain herself with. She found herself honestly looking forward to Jacob's visits, although she constantly reminded herself that he was a pawn and nothing more. If she actually allowed herself to become friends with him, she could end up being the one screwed over instead. He didn't seem to realize that she was acting the entire time they spoke. Every time he came in, they found something new to discuss and usually make fun of. When she wasn't so conscious of the fact that this was all an act on her part, she actually managed to enjoy his company. Her favorite topic was his wife's pregnancy. Despite the fact that her own pregnancy had been a miserable farce and she knew that Jacob's wife was either going to be killed by her own husband or die in the Coming, it was a nice change of pace to hear about something so ordinary and mundane as a new life coming into the world.

With the exception of Jacob's visits, however, she couldn't have been more depressed. She wasn't producing milk anymore, which made her feel even farther away from Paige than she already was, and Sate was becoming more of a menacing nuisance every time he entered her cell. His favorite tactic of intimidating her was to force her to stand perfectly still as he walked right up to her and continued to talk as though he hadn't noticed her immobility. He talked about anything he pleased, often something that she had no interest in, but he seemed to enjoy having an outlet for everything he had on his mind. His visits always ended the same, too; he would either ruffle her hair or give her shoulder a firm squeeze before he left just for the simple pleasure of demonstrating his power over her. He liked to be in control, and she absolutely loathed being out of it. Feeling helpless was not something she was accustomed to.

Regardless of the way they treated her, Kay managed to find out a lot more about both men during her first week of captivity. Jacob was nearly ten years older than she was, while Sate was only her senior by one year. Both had been excellent students at Brookridge Academy and had gone straight into the employ of the Conclave, wherever their elders saw fit to place them. Sate had been moved around a lot due to his inability to completely blend into a crowd. After all, it's a difficult task to hide a seven-foot-tall man in a crowd. Even without his height, his eyes were enough to scare anyone off. When the Conclave first started hearing reports of transgenic sightings in Terminal City, they had automatically sent him there. Being something of a freak himself, he blended in perfectly for once in his life. Jacob, on the other hand, had been highly successful in every endeavor the Conclave chose for him. His ability to talk with anyone he chose to made him perfect for public relations, which was where the Conclave generally chose to place him. His wife had actually been the head of public relations for a rival company to the one he'd been working for at the time. Recently, however, his scar had been discovered and he was placed on the list of loose familiars. He had taken his wife and run, assuring her the entire time that the rumors were false and showing her his bare arm, where he had actually just had laser surgery to remove the scar so he wouldn't be caught again. Until he volunteered for the task of capturing Kay, he had been in hiding like Sate. In fact, they had been very near each other at that time, which was where Jacob had developed his strong dislike for the mentally powerful giant.

Although Sate was her primary concern, she had started to worry about the other guards. They never came in by her, which suited her just fine, but she often heard many of them just outside her door, speaking too low to be heard. She knew perfectly well that they might be planning to do what most familiars wanted to do with transgenics; they might be interested in kicking her around a little bit. Normally this would have been just fine with her; if anything, it was a chance to escape. However, she had managed to convince Jacob to tell her what he could about the other guards, and he shared with her that one of them was a good friend with Curtis. Sate had mentioned in the very beginning that Curtis had access to the drugs in the lab, so what if he slipped out a drug that would weaken her so that they could beat her without fear of retaliation? Even if he couldn't be involved, he could still get the drug to them.

At the moment she could hear approximately three or four guards talking just outside her door, sometimes laughing, sometimes dropping their voices so no one could make out what they were saying. It wasn't until she heard Sate's familiar long stride that she became worried. Sate rarely ever went near the other guards if he could help it, things were simply too awkward. His hushed tones were added to the others, and before she knew it, her door was being opened.

"Don't tell me you're planning a party in here," she commented dryly, staring around the tiny room. "I don't know if we could fit you all in here."

Now that she could see them, she noticed that none of the four of them were the same familiars that had captured her; Sate was the only one she recognized. It was the woman who stepped forward to speak first. "It's our lucky day. For once, there's no one but us at this end of the building, so they won't be able to hear anything."

When one of the men approached, Kay's leg shot out and caught him in the gut. He stepped back, rubbing his stomach unconsciously before coming at her again. She waited until he was only a foot from her and had already pulled out a syringe before elbowing him in the face, snatching the needle from his hand, and hurling it against the wall. The liquid inside splattered both her and her attacker, but it was harmless on top of the skin. She turned to face the others, holding back the self-satisfied smirk that threatened to burst out on her face. She knew better than that. These people weren't stupid, particularly Sate, so she knew they had to have more of whatever that drug was. It had been perfectly clear; she suspected it was the same drug that Ames had used on her when he kidnapped her after the fiasco in Manticore.

As another familiar stepped forward, Kay noticed that Sate was watching the entire scene with a mildly amused smirk on his face, but also something that resembled excitement in the back of his eyes. Although he had done an impressive job so far of restraining his feelings, she knew that he held a powerful hate for her. Not that she blamed him, she didn't exactly improve the quality of his life the last time they were together. Still, he was enjoying the sheer pleasure of watching his comrades get what he felt they deserved. It was fun to watch them get kicked around by their own hostage. He would only put up with the amusing display for so long, however. She knew he would get bored with it eventually; after that, she wasn't quite sure what he would do.

Before the other familiar had even reached her, the woman stepped forward as well. _Well, at least they aren't dumb enough to take me on one by one._ In one swift move, she pushed herself away from the wall as hard as she could and slammed her fists into both of their faces, catching the woman in the nose and the man in the mouth. The man stepped back with his hand over his gushing mouth, she had at least broken five teeth, while the woman sent out a retaliatory kick, not quite managing to hit her squarely in the ribs but striking quite close. She regained her breath before the other woman could even think of attacking her again, and this time she didn't aim just to injure. The heel of her right hand jammed at a slightly upward angle into the woman's nose, sending her own cartilage straight into her brain. It was at this point that Sate decided this was taking too long. The air around her grew unnaturally cold and her feet slid backwards over the stone until she was pressed firmly against the wall. This wasn't anything unusual, he did this to her on a regular basis, but now there were three other functioning familiars in the room. Her original attacker and his successor were both approaching her again, as well as the final man standing uncomfortably in the door next to Sate. She couldn't even move as one of them punched her as hard as he could in the face. Almost instantaneously she could taste blood in her mouth and her cheekbone practically glowed in pain. It started very slowly, they all seemed to want to take their time as they decided where they wanted to hit her next, but soon they had given up thinking it over and all three were tearing at her, punching and kicking anything they could get to. She slumped to the ground when Sate released her from his hold, then felt the sharp sting as one of the men jabbed another needle into the back of her shoulder.

The effects were practically immediate. Wooziness swept through her as the resulting effect of the combination of the beating and the drug hit her. Normally she would have just felt a lack of strength, but with every inch of her under attack, her body didn't quite know how to react. She threw out her leg feebly, catching one of the familiars by surprise and tripping him in mid-kick. Before the drug took away every last bit of strength she had, she pushed herself to her feet and charged forward, burying her shoulder in someone's chest and effectively knocking the wind out of him. She brought her foot down forcefully on the tripped familiar's leg and felt a rush of relief when she heard the telltale _snap_ of a bone breaking. Without even giving him a chance to react to what she had done, she applied the exact same technique to his neck. When the last standing familiar lunged at her, she stepped aside just in time to grab the back of his head to use his own momentum against him and send him headfirst into the stone wall, resulting in another satisfying _crunch_. The one who's breath she had knocked out, the only one left alive other than Sate, stood up and backed away from her, eyeing her warily. Kay's legs shook beneath her and she looked at the door, where Sate's tall frame took up most of the space. The other one wouldn't bother her anymore, that was clear by the way he was looking at his compatriots lying on the ground, but Sate wasn't likely to step aside and let her get away. Not that she thought she would make it off the property anyway, she just wasn't strong enough to accomplish that right now.

"Having fun?" Sate asked calmly, not affected at all by the sight of his dead colleagues. The smile that spread across his face was both slow and excited, he looked as though he was having the time of his life. "As enjoyable as this little scene has been to watch, I have better ideas on how to entertain myself."

The remaining familiar stepped past Sate and headed for the door leading into the main building, shaking slightly as he went. Kay didn't like this at all. They were alone and she was weaker than a common human. He backed out of the doorway to make room for her as the air around her grew cold again. As always, her feet dragged stubbornly against the ground as he pulled her out into the garage, which indeed was empty. _Where is everyone?_ She didn't have nearly enough time to think about it. Her feet came completely off the ground and her body shot straight upwards, stopping just below a ceiling beam and making her stomach bounce inside her nauseatingly. The beam was only inches above her head and, without even thinking, she reached up and grabbed it. He hadn't bothered to control her arms as he performed his little flying act, but he changed his mind about that as soon as she had a good grip on the beam. She had to clasp her hands tightly together to keep her arms from separating and tearing away from the beam. Blood trickled down her arms as the corners of the beam dug into the already sliced open skin just below her elbows.

"How long do you really think you can stay up there?" he called out tauntingly. "You're losing blood, which is only going to make that muscle relaxant stronger. You'll pass out before too long, that is, if I don't rip you down from there before that."

"I'll stay up here as long as I have to!" she spat back at him, wishing she felt as brave as she sounded. He was right, she wasn't strong enough to hold on for very long, and even if she did manage to stay up here for more than ten minutes, she would more than likely faint. That drug was meant for a perfectly healthy person of her strength, not for a severely beaten and bleeding one. It was too strong of a dosage. Her fingers grew sweaty and began to slip over each other, but she desperately clung on as she felt the constant tug of Sate's eyes trying to pull her down. _Think about something, anything to keep you from focusing on how difficult this is. Paige, I'm coming for you. As soon as we're together again, I can think about coming back and killing this bastard._ The combined thoughts of revenge and seeing her daughter again gave her the tiniest adrenaline rush, but she doubted it would be very useful. When the rush disappeared and she went through the resulting energy low, it would be the final straw. Just as she felt the light burst of energy fade away, Sate gave one more fierce tug and her fingers finally tore loose from each other.

He let her hit the ground with nothing more than the assistance of gravity, but he didn't give her more of a break from his eyes than that. She suddenly found herself skidding across the cement floor, scraping her back harshly as the cloth of her shirt started ripping from the friction. The journey didn't stop until she crashed headlong into one of the walls, biting back her cry of pain. He could toss her around all he wanted, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of hearing her cry out. As he sent her across the floor again, she thought she caught the shadow of someone standing just outside the side door of the garage that led in from the front lawn, but that was the only time she caught a glimpse of them. After that, her memories of the ordeal blurred together in such a confusing, chaotic muddle that she had no idea how long Sate's treatment went on. She only knew that he raked her practically limp body across the floor several times and into each of the walls at least twice before his fun time came to an end.

"What is going on here?" a familiar voice gasped in absolute shock. "Cut it out, Sate, or I'll have to stop you myself."

Both Kay and Sate gazed over to see Jacob standing in the doorway from the main building with his gun out, staring around at the blood-spattered garage in complete confusion and barely concealed disgust. Sate glared at the other man for a moment, and then held up his hands with his slight half-smile lingering on his lips. He knew perfectly well that Jacob could shoot him before he got the chance to rip that gun from his hands. Jacob stepped away from the door and tipped the gun in that direction. "Go to Alistair's office and tell him exactly what happened. Michael wasn't able to tell the whole story, but from what he said, it sounds like you just watched the entire massacre. Alistair will want to know why, and I don't think he'll be pleased when he finds out that you were toying with the hostage when you should have been clearing the bodies out of here. The Conclave will deal with her in their own way."

Sate sneered as he passed by him on the way to the door. "You're on a first name basis with him now? How sweet."

Jacob glared at his back as he disappeared, finally turning back to look at Kay. "Jesus Christ, what have you gotten yourself into? If you think Sate is a nightmare, just wait until Alistair gets his hands on you. He may not have all of Sate's abilities, but I think it's safe to say that he didn't get to the level of respect that he enjoys now with just his intelligence and leadership capabilities."

"I'll worry about that later," she choked out almost inaudibly. Every piece of skin on her body, what was left anyway, felt as though it had been sandpapered for several hours straight. Her clothes didn't even resemble clothing anymore, they had been reduced to shredded rags. Under normal circumstances she would have been embarrassed, but any flesh that was showing was too bloody and bruised to be revealing anyway. She didn't even attempt to stand up, she knew she wouldn't be able to. Now that she was looking around the garage without sliding through it, she could see every trail that Sate had sent her down. The only thing she could smell and see was blood.

Jacob sighed and walked into her cell, dragging out the three dead bodies that had been forgotten there. When he had pulled them a fair enough distance away, he came to her side and reached down to try and lift her to her feet. She only managed to stay standing for about two seconds before her legs gave way and she slumped against him helplessly. He rolled his eyes and swept her up easily into his arms, staring down in distaste at the blood on his clothes when he laid her down again on the floor of her cell. "He sure managed to mess you up. I'll see what I can do about getting you some new clothes; those definitely aren't good anymore."

She forced out a faint smile as his face swam before her eyes, growing strangely dark and then light again. Her eyes ached and felt ten times too big for her head. For some reason they hurt her more than the rest of her body did, even though it was only a continuous throb that plagued them. Even just smiling made them hurt more. "I'm making a new fashion statement. 'Clothes aren't any good to wear until they've been through a shredder.' I'll make millions, just you wait and see." Why was the light changing so much? It was like someone kept hitting a dimmer switch.

"You're the strangest person I've ever met. You look like _you're_ the one who went through the shredder, but you're still cracking jokes like it's any other day. Look, I really am sorry about what Sate did, but I'm also not that happy about the way you killed my coworkers. I may not have known them very well, but they were _my_ people. I think I've been pretty foolish to stick around here and talk to you when I was bored with guard duty. It almost made me forget what you are. What's wrong, why are you looking at me like that?"

The truth was that she wasn't actually looking at him. She wasn't looking at anything at all. Instead of everything getting brighter again after going dim, the world had just continued to grow darker until the lights went out completely. No matter how hard she strained her eyes, she couldn't see a thing. "No reason, I just can't believe what I'm hearing. If you really feel that way, then get out of here. I'm serious, just go!" she snapped viciously at him. If he had decided to treat her like a freak again, then the last thing she wanted for him to know was that she was temporarily blind. _At least I _hope_ it's just temporary._ After the door slammed, she leaned back against the wall in defeat. It wasn't going to be long before this Alistair, whoever he was, came to see her and discovered this new revelation. The worst thing was that she knew she didn't stand a chance of escaping while she was like this. Even after only a week, it was starting to feel as though she'd never get out of here.

* * *

Jondy couldn't believe everything she had just witnessed. Zack hadn't been able to actually see from where he was standing, but he had heard enough to be just as horrified as she was. She turned to him with her eyes as wide as they could physically get. "Zack, I know I've been acting like a stubborn ass lately, but even I know when to swallow my pride. We need to get her out of there as soon as we can. These people are terrible, who knows how many of them will show up when she comes into heat?"

"Actually, I don't think they're going to find out," Zack replied quietly, rubbing his palms together in an effort to keep himself standing in his spot and not go rushing into the garage to get Kay right then and there, but not quite for the purpose of rescuing her. "She's not going to act like it with the pain she's in."

"That's only if she comes into heat soon. If it takes a few weeks, she could very well be back to normal."

"She's not going to come into heat in a few weeks, trust me. We need to leave right now before I lose it. If we stay here any longer, I might just blow our cover in the most ridiculous way."

As they hurried back towards the car, Jondy asked, "What are you talking about? And what makes you think it won't be in a few weeks?"

"Because she's in heat right now. I could smell it from where I was standing and I'm sure Sate could too, even if he didn't know what it means. I think they can smell heat cycles, but they don't react to them because they don't have our feline DNA. I know it's still not a good situation, but I'm starting to worry about this Alistair guy they were talking about more. With the way they were referring to him, I think he's part of the Conclave. He's not going to be very happy about her killing three of his people. If we don't get her out of there tomorrow at the latest, I really don't think she'll be alive to save."

* * *

Author's Note: Please read and review! 


	16. Following the Leader

Disclaimer: Any names you don't remember hearing on the show are mine.

****

Black Ice

By Be Boring

****

Chapter 15: Following the Leader

Alistair sat in perfect silence behind his desk, continuously folding and unfolding his fingers as he waited for Sate to arrive. Jacob had called only thirty seconds ago with the news that Sate was on his way, but that he had nearly killed 358. Apparently she was a tattered mess. He sighed in frustration and cracked his knuckles as he waited. That young man had shown such potential as a child, but he should have seen this coming. Sate's family was the only one with telekinetic ability, as his breeding line was the only successful attempt, and it meant that Sate and his brother Sam were singled out. They were incredibly useful, but they had a difficult time working harmoniously with other familiars. He should have known that sooner or later that would result in an outburst of repressed anger from one of them. Alistair had learned his lesson after Sate; instead of keeping Sam with the students at all times, he pulled the boy away from them from time to time to use him as a bodyguard. He didn't even plan on leaving Sam with them in high school. The boy would be tutored instead while he remained in his full employ. Sate, on the other hand, had spent his teenage years with the other familiars his age, none of whom had treated him very well. He was constantly taking the brunt of everyone's jokes and his personal property always managed to find its way into a toilet, down the laundry chute, or into the school pond. As he had thought before, Alistair knew he should have seen this coming a long time ago. Everything that the young man had bottled up inside him was bound to come bursting out at one point or another. He just couldn't believe it had gone to the point of not even caring when half of his colleagues were killed in front of him.

When Sate finally came in, he didn't look nervous in the least. If anything, the light bounce in his step indicated that he was very happy, although he wasn't letting it show on his face. "You wanted to see me, sir?" he asked in his most obedient voice, seating himself in the chair across the desk that the High Priest gestured to.

Alistair leaned forward, settling with leaving his fingers folded together as he spoke. "Yes, Sate, I think we need to talk. I'm disappointed in your behavior today. I would have expected you to remove the bodies of our unfortunately departed friends. After all, you're the most suited for it, you wouldn't even have to get your hands dirty. Instead you chose to nearly mutilate our most important hostage when you knew that I would handle that myself after the bodies of our people had been taken care of. I'm afraid that it's probably a better idea if you are no longer in contact with our guest. I'll be looking for someplace to redeploy you, but for the time being I would like for you to return to your Minneapolis hideout. I will let you know when we have another mission for you."

Sate's eyes widened in surprise, and anger soon flared in them, but he refused to lose his temper around the High Priest. "Forgive my asking, sir, but am I not to be given a chance to defend myself? Perhaps the story you were given was not completely accurate. For one thing, I was not the only one attempting to mutilate 358. Did anyone mention that?"

"Sate, I have no reason not to trust either Michael or Jacob. I know both of them very well, and I do not believe they would lie to me. I think it's best if you begin packing right now and I'll arrange for some kind of transport so you can leave this evening. As for the others, it appears that 358 dealt with them already."

Even with his insides writhing in anger, Sate merely gave a polite nod. "Of course, sir, whatever you think is for the best. Fen'os tol."

"Fen'os tol."

As he headed back out the door, Sate rolled his eyes at the naivety of the older man. Did he really think he was just going to give up and go home now? That was the very last thing he planned to do.

* * *

Kay felt like she'd been run over by a semi at least five times. Her entire body throbbed and pulsed like one giant heart, but her head was the worst, especially her eyes. She absolutely hated not being able to see, but she knew her body would fix that in its own time, provided it had the time to try. For the first time in an entire week, she was completely alone. No one was outside her door, more than likely because she didn't require a guard at the moment, but also because her guards were in no shape to be looking over her. For a while she had heard Jacob moving the bodies out of the garage, but it never sounded like he came back in.

So slowly that it felt like she was never going to make any progress, Kay pushed herself to her feet, leaning heavily against the wall for support. She kept her hands firmly braced against it as she gradually made her way towards the door. She didn't know why she was bothering, it was always locked, but she knew she would always kick herself for not trying. When her fingers finally came into contact with the doorknob, she grasped it weakly and twisted, but as she had expected, it didn't budge. She sighed in defeat and slumped against the wall, just barely managing to stay standing. Why was she bothering? If Jacob's words were anything to go on, she might not survive her encounter with that Alistair guy. Just before her legs could give way and leave her crumpled on the ground again, she heard Sate's very familiar long stride moving through the garage. He wasn't coming in her direction though. She heard one of the large garage doors open, then his footsteps faded as he walked down the wide driveway. In her curiosity, her legs somehow managed to support her as she strained her ears for anything else. No matter what Sate was up to, she knew it didn't bode well for her.

The next thing she heard was a vehicle pulling up the driveway and into the garage. When its door opened, she didn't even have to listen to know it was Sate that climbed out. Her door swung open mere inches from her head and she immediately felt his hot breath wash over her face as he realized that she was right there. He didn't say anything, he just grabbed her and swung her over his shoulder as he exited her tiny cell. For some reason, she felt a very distinct tingle run down her spine, but it was soon forced out of her mind as the bruises on her stomach protested at his shoulder digging into them. The next thing she knew, she was being deposited into the back seat of a rather spacious car. She desperately wanted to lash out at him, but she was too tired to do anything but relax against the softness of the seat. He slammed the door by her feet and climbed back into the driver's seat. Moments later, the car performed a small U-turn in the garage and headed back out into the driveway. She could feel the heat of the sun radiating through the window above her head and gleaming on her arm, adding to the already stuffy atmosphere in the car. _Couldn't he at least roll down a window? It's boiling in here!_ Still, it was a pleasant change from her cold cell.

"You know, you always manage to cause trouble for me," Sate growled in frustration from in front of her. "Everything goes wrong whenever you're around, and I always seem to get the brunt of it."

__

Excuse me? she thought incredulously. _Who's the one all bruised and bleeding laying in the back seat going God-knows-where? Count your blessings, buddy._ She swallowed hard, working her tongue in her mouth to try and work up some moisture. Her mouth was amazingly dry at the moment. "Where are we going?" she murmured, wishing her voice didn't sound so quiet and weak.

"Somewhere where no one's going to think to look for us," he replied quickly, although she noticed that he didn't sound extremely happy.

* * *

Ben glanced around watchfully, making sure no one was around. Max and Alec had gone to work with the difficult task of covering for three of their coworkers, and Logan had gone to meet a contact for one of his other projects. Paige was sound asleep at the moment, so the coast was clear. Every day this week Ben had been making trips down to the basement to talk to White. Despite his anger, his curiosity had overwhelmed him about the time that White and Kay had lived together. He didn't just want to hear about how Kay had been suicidal, he wanted to know details.__

White eyed him suspiciously as he came down the stairs, as though sizing him up. When his eyes wandered to Ben's hair, he commented, "You aren't 494, are you?" He thought he knew the answer to that already.

Ben shook his head as his feet connected with the solid, icy cement of the basement floor. "No, I'm not. But I'm sure you know who I am anyway." It occurred to him as he approached White that this was the first time he had ever actually spoken to the man. With how much he hated him, it was really hard to believe that they'd never exchanged words. White had spoken to him very briefly over a year ago, when he'd captured him in Canada along with Mole and believed that he was 494, but only to inform him that he would soon be taken apart in a lab. Ben never actually had the opportunity to reply.

"Yes, I know who you are. I wonder what you want to talk about?" he pondered sarcastically. "I'll bet I don't even need three guesses."

Ben's foot shot out and connected powerfully with his jaw, quickly wiping the sarcastic sneer off his face. "I'm not down here to find out how many snide remarks you can make in one conversation, I'm down here to talk about Kay. I want to know everything, from the moment she learned she was pregnant to the day that I took Paige."

"Do you realize how long that's going to take?"

"I've got plenty of time, and it looks like you do too. Start talking."

"Why don't you be more specific? You can't expect me to recall everything she's had for breakfast for the past eight months."

Ben rolled his eyes in disgust and kicked him again. "There you go with that sarcasm thing again. That's not the way I like to talk, I like to stick to the facts. If you do that, this won't take nearly as long. If you want me to be specific, fine, I will be. How did Kay react to finding out she was pregnant?"

"Well, she didn't look thrilled. As soon as I found out, I knew I would have to take her into hiding with me. I already was planning on running away because I'd made myself an enemy to my people, and this was the last thing I ever wanted them to find out. I didn't give her any options, I simply told her that she was going to come with me. There's not much to tell after that. She never talked to me; if she said anything out loud at all, it was to Ray, and even then she didn't say much. She spent every day being miserable and self-pitying. I don't know how you put up with her before. I was ready to take her apart."

Ben studied his face curiously as he asked his next question. "Why didn't you?"

White shrugged as much as his bonds would allow. "I don't know, maybe I liked the thought that I was going to have another kid." The look on his face as he said this didn't quite convince Ben. He knew that White hadn't wanted a child with a transgenic, so did it have something specifically to do with Kay? Did White have feelings for Kay, or had he just felt sorry for her? Even feeling pity was beyond his usual restricted realm of emotion. The thing that really bugged him was that if White had feelings for Kay, did she return them?

He had spent the entire week trying to answer that, but White was talented at making everything he said sound cold and emotionless. Outside of his sarcasm, he knew how to relay just the facts and nothing about the sentiments. Ben had never asked anything about emotions straight out because he knew the reply would be a lie, but he had something different on his mind today. It was also something that he hadn't asked about during the week, but he couldn't hold it back anymore. No matter how awkward it was to ask, he needed to know.

"Why do you keep coming down here?" White asked irritably. "I've told you everything I can, there's nothing more to know."

"Of course there is," Ben snapped. "There's always something more to know. When we first brought you here, you said that things were miserable, especially for the first few months. Why were those worse than the last few?"

Ames had known that eventually it would come down to this, but he hadn't known it would take so long. They had been dancing around this for an entire week, but instead they spent their time rehashing everything else a million times, far past the point where Ames was sick of discussing it. At least this was something new, but he had no desire to talk about it. He hated to admit it to himself, but Ben scared him slightly, and the last thing he wanted to tell him was that he had started sleeping with Kay again. That would most certainly earn him a broken bone, or possibly even a castration. He cringed internally at the thought. "Because Kay loosened up during the last few months," he replied evasively. "She finally accepted that things weren't going to change, so she made the best of what she had."

"How so?"

"Well, she started to become more conversational. She asked a lot about my childhood, particularly anything I could tell her about my father, and she liked to talk about Wendy. That wasn't always the best topic of discussion, considering the circumstances, but it usually managed to cheer her up."

That sounded reasonable enough, but Ben wanted to know for sure. Just as he opened his mouth to ask directly, he heard the front door open upstairs. He dashed back up the stairs as fast as he could and closed the basement door silently behind him. He managed to make it look as though he was coming from the guest room just as Jondy turned the corner. Her face was so pale that at first he had no idea what to say. "What's going on?" he finally asked anxiously. That look on her face was definitely not positive.

"Where is everyone?"

"Max and Alec went to work to cover for everybody, and Logan had a contact to meet. We weren't expecting you guys to be back for a while. What happened? Did something go wrong?"

Jondy rubbed her hands together in an attempt to make them stop shaking. She'd seen violence before, so why was this bothering her so much? _Maybe with all the hormones running through my body right now, things will affect me more._ "Ben, we've really got to get Kay out of there. When Zack and I showed up, all of her guards drugged her and started beating her up when she couldn't defend herself. Well, I really shouldn't say that, she managed to kill three of them, but one of the two that was still alive was telekinetic. I don't know if that Red guy who took care of you ever told you about Sate, but he was the familiar that was pretending to be the leader of the psy-ops."

"Wasn't he supposed to be dead?"

"That's what we thought, but apparently not. Max was the last one to see him, and he was being ripped apart by the X2s at the time. But think about it, if he's still alive, he must have one hell of a grudge against Kay. Max said he looked bad before the X2s got to him, and we all know that Kay and the other escapees took him hostage before the fight. That probably explains why he was crashing Kay into every solid object in sight, particularly the walls. She really looked bad when we left, but we figured it was safe to leave for the time being because one of the other familiars came out and put a stop to it. She's back in her cell right now. Then there's the fact that Zack said he could smell that she was in heat. At least she shouldn't be thinking about that with the pain she's in. I don't know if we should call Max and Alec, we really need to get going on this."

Zack came in through the door behind Brin, throwing cautious glances in her direction. She had been shaken up pretty badly when she heard what was happening in that garage. Her coldness towards Kay at Crash was really coming back to haunt her at the moment. Zack knew she wasn't going to be very talkative for a while, which he usually viewed as a good thing, but right now it worried him. If she didn't talk to him, he wouldn't know what was going on inside her head. He had heard the last part of Jondy's discussion with Ben as he walked into the house, so he took the opportunity to cut her off before she actually called anyone. "Jondy, I don't think we need to call anyone. We can take care of this ourselves. That college is practically empty, if that one guard hadn't still been out there when we left, we probably would've grabbed her right then and there."

Ben raised his eyebrows in surprise. "_One_ guard? You couldn't have taken care of that?"

"There were dead bodies there, we had to expect that others would be along soon to take care of that. Just because the students are gone doesn't mean that the teachers are. Naturally I would have preferred to have Max and Alec along, but I think between the four of us we can get it done. The main reason I wanted to come back was because we need to be packing if we're going to go in there. I didn't know we would be rushed like this or I would have loaded the car with everything we need. How long will that baby sleep?"

"Probably until Logan gets back. I'll have to leave a note on his desk to let him know."

Zack nodded and headed for the small, never used bathroom that was hidden in the corner of what used to be Sandeman's office, but was too cluttered for Logan to even attempt using. Joshua had never taken his cleaning efforts there when he moved in, probably because it wasn't a room he was planning on being in. He had never even used the bedroom. It was in the tiny, adjoining bathroom of the office, however, where Zack had snuck in a stockpile of weapons over the past week. The weapons had been anything he could get his hands on, so they had an interesting array of choices to select from. When the pile was laid out for everyone to see, they all started picking what they wanted. It was during this time that Brin finally snapped out of her quiet daze for a few moments.

"Is that a machete? Where did you get that?"

"Stole it off someone's wall when they went into the house to find money to give me a tip. I didn't think we'd be able to use it, I just wanted it." He felt a rush of relief at the brief smile that flickered on her face, but it drained away when the smile left. He didn't like seeing her like this. Whenever she was feeling guilty, there was simply no means of consoling her. It was just something she had to work through on her own. "Jondy and Brin, you guys will have to be the ones to actually get Kay out of there, because Ben and I can't be around her right now. We'll hold off any familiars while you three get away. Any problems with that?"

Ben nodded. "What if they already took eggs from her? Even if we take her, they'll still have them, which defeats the entire purpose of going there in the first place."

Zack hated hearing Ben talk like that. It was as though Kay was of no importance at all. _How is it that she was such a huge part of his life, but I'm the one who's the most concerned for her right now? Am I the only one who thinks that is screwed up?_ If it were Brin being trapped right now, he would be knocking down buildings in his attempts to get to her, so how could Ben act so distant about all of this? Their lives on the farm weren't so long ago, it was impossible to think that anything he had felt then was gone so quickly. "We'll deal with that later. I don't know if they've taken care of the implantation of the eggs yet, which is part of the worst scenario. Some of the surrogates will be perfectly innocent women, we can't just kill them to stop the baby from being born. If things go smoothly enough, maybe we'll take care of it today, but I really think that's a mission for another time."

The mood was extremely subdued as everyone headed for the car. They all knew what they had to do, but they had slightly different opinions about it. Zack had absolutely no setbacks about the rescue, Jondy held a very strong fear of what Sate could do if he caught them, Brin was wracked with guilt about how she had treated Kay, and Ben was wishing he could have finished his conversation with White. The man didn't have much reason to lie to him about his relationship with Kay, but she had plenty of reasons. He knew that if he confronted her, she would probably lie straight out to him. That just seemed to be the kind of person she had become during their time apart.

When the college finally loomed up in front of them, Jondy was the first to notice the difference. "None of those big doors were open when we were here before."

"Dammit," Zack muttered under his breath. Had they moved her again? He couldn't see why they would, all of their equipment was here and they had no idea about this rescue mission. As he pulled over to the side of the road, the sunlight moved to the right angle for them to see right into the garage, and it became quite apparent that something was wrong. A few familiars were striding around the garage, two of them looking around on the floor as if searching for something and the other repeatedly trying to call someone on his cell phone. The thing that really made his stomach drop was when he spotted the door to Kay's cell. It was wide open and clearly empty. "She's not here, but I don't think it was planned."

"Do you think she got away?" Brin asked hopefully.

Jondy shook her head. "You didn't see her before, Brin. There's no way she walked out of here on her own steam. Besides, with the shape she was in, we'd see a blood trail. I think someone drove off with her."

Zack nodded, he had been thinking along the same lines. "The only thing I don't understand is who would take her? Only we and the familiars knew she was here, there's no one left."

Ben rolled down his window halfway and focused in on the voice of the man who was attempting to make a phone call. Every now and then he heard the man mutter, "Dammit, Sate, turn on your cell phone." They all heard it at the same time, and it was clear they all knew what had happened. Ben leaned back against his seat and gazed absently at his knees while the others spoke.

"Where would Sate have taken her?" Brin asked nervously as Zack pulled away from the side of the road and continued on his way. "He's a recognizable guy, it's just not feasible for him to hide anywhere."

"I don't know," Zack replied honestly, "but I think we're going to have to split up. We need to accomplish both of our objectives, and it's best to take care of it while the familiars are distracted with searching for Kay. Two of us are going to have to go into the college and find the eggs. Hopefully they haven't been implanted into surrogates yet, but if they are, we'll need to find a creative way to terminate the pregnancies."

"I'm sure this place has medications on hand that might disrupt a pregnancy," Jondy mused, feeling a twinge of guilt at the thought of aborting another woman's baby when her own was still growing inside of her. "With any luck, we won't have to worry about that."

Zack pulled over again out of sight of the college so they could talk safely. "Okay, I think Ben and I should take care of the eggs. You two work well together, and I don't want any fumes that might be in there to harm your baby. I don't know what means we'll have to go to so that we can get rid of the eggs, and I don't want any possibility of you also being affected."

Ben finally spoke up for the first time since they had entered the car. "Actually, Zack, I think you should take Brin with you. I agree with you about Jondy, but I can go with her."

Zack glanced at him suspiciously. "Why do you want to go with Jondy?"

"Because I can smell Kay. Can't you smell the heat cycle?" Now that he had mentioned it, Zack realized that the scent was hanging lightly in the air. It was incredibly weak, but present nevertheless. "The girls won't be able to track that, but we can. As long as I can smell her, we'll stand a better chance of finding her."

Zack hesitated for a moment, and then finally nodded. "Okay, Brin will come with me. I want you two to be careful, though, got it? Especially you," he said sharply, pointing at Ben. "Jondy has seen what Sate can do, but you haven't. You don't know how strong he is. You be careful, too," he added, nodding at Jondy. She offered him a tight, strained smile along with her nod, but he could tell how scared she was. He didn't blame her, he wouldn't be too keen to take Sate on again either. "I've got my phone on me, so call me if anything comes up that you'll need us for. Hopefully our part won't take long and you can call us as soon as you've found her."

Ben and Jondy both nodded as Zack and Brin climbed out of the car. Jondy climbed up into the driver's seat, but Ben remained in the back as she pulled away from the curb. "What are you doing back there?" she asked curiously as Ben opened both of the back windows. "Couldn't you have done that up here?"

"Sure, but I've got a lot more personal space back here to smell. It will help me focus if I'm equally far away from both windows." Even as he spoke, he was positioning himself in the very center of the back seat. "Stop, you'll have to back up and take a turn. The smell is fading."

As she performed a quick U-turn, she commented, "You know, Sate's car could have masked her scent, so it could fade away in any direction. How can you be sure it's Kay you smell, anyway? There are plenty of other female X5s that could be around here. If you catch one of their trails, we could get way off course."

"Listen, I've smelled both Brin and Kay in heat, and I could tell them apart. I'm sure we're following Kay. Okay, take a left," he added as she approached the intersection where Kay's scent had started to fade. He was sure it was stronger to his left, which was confirmed as Jondy followed his instructions. As they drove, he started to become much more adept at predicting when they would have to turn, almost to the point where they didn't drive past the intersections and have to turn around anymore. Nearly fifteen minutes into their drive, Ben's eyes widened in realization as he recognized the roads they were driving on. "You don't even need me to direct you anymore."

"What makes you say that?"

He poked his head out of the window as a tall wire fence loomed in the distance. "Because he took her to Terminal City."

* * *

Author's Note: Please review! 


	17. End of the Line

Disclaimer: Kay, Paige, Sate, Jacob, and Curtis are mine.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

****

Chapter 16: End of the Line

Sate gazed up distastefully at his former home in Terminal City. No one had ever bothered to go near it after his true identity was discovered, as though worried more familiars were hiding inside waiting to attack. As much as he had struggled to make it a comfortable place to live, he could never get it to change from what it really was, a prison. He had found his mission exciting, but after a while it had started to feel like the transgenic stench in the air had him in a chokehold. He wasn't supposed to leave the city, so his only company was the freaks that he had grown to despise. Naturally, the psy-ops gravitated towards him because he wasn't intimidated in the least by the not-so-normal-looking residents of the city. For being a crowd of mind readers, they sure were gullible. This house was the last place he had ever wanted to return to. Still, it was safer than anywhere else at the moment. Who would be able to follow their trail? What would bring anyone to this forsaken scrap of land?

Despite her own pain, Kay noticed Sate's reluctance as he lifted her out of the car, even though she had no idea where they were. Every muscle in his torso was tensed against her side and his footsteps were much slower than usual. A light breeze played over her face, bringing a welcome relief from the stifling heat inside the car. She felt like she had been sitting in a sauna for a several hours, although she knew that she hadn't been in that car any longer than a half hour. When Sate entered the house, he promptly dumped her onto the couch and started to walk throughout the house, double-checking that all the windows and doors were locked. Even though that wouldn't hold back a familiar or transgenic for long, it would ensure that he would hear them coming for him.

The couch was the softest thing Kay had laid on all week, so it didn't take too long for her to doze off. It also didn't take too long for her exhausted mind to run away with her.

__

"Sate, please stop!" she shrieked as Paige went whizzing past her head again. She hardly recognized her own daughter anymore, it was only the mournful wails of her tortured child that seemed familiar. She was standing in the very center of a white room that was spattered with blood on every surface, making it look like a butcher's shop. Although Sate wasn't anywhere in sight, she instinctively knew that he was nearby controlling this cruelty. "Sate, let her go, she's just a baby!" Kay cried pitifully as Paige dropped limply to the floor, only to soar back up and collide abruptly with the ceiling for what felt like the millionth time. How long had this been going on? She wasn't sure anymore.

Suddenly, Paige dropped to the floor again, but she didn't come back up. The cold energy that had been present in the air had disappeared now. As Kay stood in horrified silence, Paige's squealing screams rose into the air. Kay started to take a step towards her daughter, but all of a sudden Ben appeared in the far corner of the room. He held up a hand that faced in her direction, although he never actually looked at her, and suddenly her body stopped moving. He walked towards Paige and lifted her gently, paternally into his arms. He smiled sweetly down at her and trailed his fingers over her face, somehow erasing the blood marring her features as he did so. Soon, she looked just as she had the last time Kay had seen her.

"Is she all right?" she asked frantically. "Will she be okay?"

Still not looking in her direction, Ben gave a rather odd smile, as though someone had just whispered a cruel joke in his ear. "Of course she will be," he replied softly, staring lovingly down into Paige's face. "I'll take such good care of her, she'll never have to worry about pain like this again."

"What do you mean, you'll take care of her? Give her to me!"

Finally, he looked up at her, but his cold gaze made her stomach drop straight down to her knees. "No, because if I give her to you, it will only be a matter of time before something like this happens again. Don't you understand why you keep seeing me? You could be seeing anyone else from your past, but you choose to see me, even though you chose to leave me. You still haven't discovered why?"

Kay didn't understand what he was getting at, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything. Instead, she waited impatiently for him to answer his own question. "It's because I symbolize the pain you are capable of causing. You hurt me more than even you know, so you are trying to prevent yourself from doing the same thing to your daughter. Your own subconscious has been trying to tell you that you need to push away your daughter the same way you pushed me away so that you don't cause the same pain to her. You knew before she was even born that her life would be difficult, especially with you and your miserable karma as her sole caregiver, so you've been trying to convince yourself to let her go. Although this hasn't happened to her yet," he gestured around at the blood-splattered room, "you know that it's very possible. At first you tried to scare yourself into stopping the pregnancy by dreaming about a mutilated baby, but after you discovered that I really did have her, you started to dream about this." Once again, he motioned his hand towards one of the white walls. As he watched her face, he held Paige out for her to see clearly. "It's better this way, you have to understand that. Who better to take care of your daughter than me? You ruined me, and you still hold the potential to destroy your child, so why not let us move on with our damaged lives together? It's a sacrifice you'll have to make if you want Paige to be happy."

Kay shook her head furiously. "No, you're wrong. I didn't ruin your life, you chose to let it fall apart! And as for Paige, I realize I wasn't the best mother in the world, but I was doing my best, which I happen to think is pretty considerable. Just because I won't be able to shelter her from every terrible thing doesn't mean she'll be miserable. She could end up being very happy."

"No, you mean you_ will end up being very happy. Don't you think you're being a little selfish?"_

Kay jerked awake as Sate slammed the front door, bringing in some food from the car. That was the first time that one of her dreams hadn't managed to finish, and now she wished she knew how it turned out. It was also the first time that her mind came straight out and told her why it was torturing her like this. As much as she didn't want to admit it, it wasn't really Ben saying those words, those were her own thoughts. Was that really how she secretly felt? Did she think that Paige would be better off without her? _No, Paige is _my_ daughter. I have every right to be with her. Don't I?_ Her subconscious mind was right, she did have an incredible gift for causing pain, and there was plenty of potential for Paige to suffer the worst from it.

"What is that smell?" she heard Sate grumble from another room, which happened to be the kitchen. "My house never smelled like this before."

__

His house? Are we in Terminal City? As she listened to his refrigerator door open, her stomach rumbled so loudly that she even felt the skin on her belly vibrate. _Wow, I didn't realize I was that hungry._ Suddenly, she felt something land in her lap. When her fingers finally came into contact with it, she realized it was something enveloped in plastic wrap. "Eat it, it's just a sandwich," Sate snapped, and she clearly heard him take a bite out of his sandwich. "Why do I still smell it?" he complained again, pacing back into the kitchen. Kay had no clue what he was talking about, but she was ravenous. It took her a little while to find an edge of the plastic wrap so she could peal it off, but she eventually finished unwrapping it. Despite its utter lack of flavor, at least it filled up some of the seemingly bottomless pit that was currently taking the role of her stomach.

* * *

Alistair, Michael, and Jacob never really knew what hit them when Brin and Zack opened fire on them. It only took a few well-aimed shots to take care of them, and soon their blood was quickly adding to Kay's dried streaks on the floor. Zack knew that one of these men had been the one to stop Sate's attack on Kay, but in the long run he was still a familiar, and therefore still the enemy.

"How many other people do you think are still here?" Brin asked as they entered the main body of the college.

"Not many, that's for sure," he commented as he strained his ears to hear any movement near them. As far as he could tell, no one was around for over a hundred feet. Of course, he wouldn't be making much noise either if he had just overheard the gunfire in the garage. "If anyone _is_ here, we'll have to hurry, because I'm sure they heard our little display of gun power."

They each took a side of the hall and started opening doors, even though they weren't quite sure what they needed to be looking for. Refrigeration equipment? Brin didn't have the slightest idea, but as she opened the eleventh door down the west side of the hall, a loud _bang_ resonated through the air. She cried out in surprise as a bullet tore through her left bicep, immediately resulting in the warmth of her blood pouring down her arm. She fired her gun right back, sending it straight into the kneecap of a man she didn't recognize. He wasn't particularly tall, but he was exceedingly burly with short, dirty blonde hair. As though he hadn't even felt the bullet wound in his knee, he shot back at her, but she was prepared this time. She darted into the room and to the side, out of the path of the bullet. Before he could shoot again, she kicked the gun out of his heavily bandaged hands and backhanded him as hard as she could across the face.

Zack didn't even have time to make it into the room. Before he knew it, Brin was dragging out some strange man by the hair and dropping him on the floor at Zack's feet. He couldn't believe the man had managed to pull the trigger, he looked like his arms and hands were enclosed in styrofoam. Something must have been broken pretty badly in order for him to be bandaged like that. "Okay," he said carefully, looking the other man over, "I think it's fair enough to ask who you are."

"None of your damn business," the man growled in reply, swinging out one of his casts to try and strike Zack in the legs. He jumped deftly over the arm and responded with a kick to the ribs.

"Fine, I don't really need to know. What I _do_ need to know, however, is if there are any surrogates around. So, are there?"

"Once again," the man spat, "that's none of your damn business."

Zack stared grimly down at one of the casts and promptly stomped on it without hesitating to use all of his weight. He smiled with satisfaction when the man screamed in agony, he had succeeded in snapping the cast in half and pounding all of his weight down onto the broken arm. "So, have you changed your mind about what is my business and what isn't?" he asked in a mockingly warm voice. "That must have hurt an awful lot, I'd hate to have to do that to your other arm. Maybe I can break your legs in the same way, wouldn't that be fun?"

Curtis pulled himself into a sitting position, panting brokenly in pain. He held his exposed arm against his body protectively as he instinctively leaned away from the X5s. "The surrogates haven't been brought in yet. They were going to start that stuff next week."

"Where are the eggs?"

"I don't know, I'm not part of that. Look, I'm just a scientist here, and obstetrics wasn't my area of specialty. They never told me where they were storing those genetic travesties waiting to grow."

Zack sighed and immediately put a bullet through the center of Curtis's forehead. "We've found out what we wanted to, there's no surrogates here. That means the only people that might be in the building are familiars, and they're expendable. I say we just blow the place up."

Brin winced as she tightened a self-made tourniquet with her teeth and opposite hand around her upper arm. "Is that your answer to everything?" she asked when she was sure it was on tight enough.

Zack nodded as he walked over and made sure the tourniquet was secure. "It doesn't really tend to leave anything behind, so yeah, I guess I prefer exploding things. I've got enough stuff in my bag, and we can always run back to Logan's house if we need more. I have enough explosives to send this place to Portland."

* * *

Once inside Terminal City, Jondy and Ben immediately abandoned the car and set off on foot. They already knew which general direction they were going. "What's the name of the street that the psy-ops lived on again?" Ben asked as they trudged along, passing several buildings that had been deserted in favor of the suddenly accepting outside world.

"I think it was Elm Street," Jondy replied, looking at signs as they passed. "All I know is that it had a tree name, just like the X5s' section, and it was the eastern end of Terminal City. Not many of us came this way, Oak Street is a little closer to the northern end. We generally preferred to leave the psy-ops alone. It shouldn't be too hard to find his place, I don't think any psy-ops are still in this area, so his will be the only one that's occupied. Besides, you'll be able to smell which one they're in."

She was right, he'd be able to scent out the house easily. The perfume of Kay's heat cycle grew stronger with every step, even with the car exhaust that it had blended with. He knew now that it was only a matter of time before they found Kay. The only part he didn't like was that Jondy would have to carry her all the way back to the car. He couldn't very well carry her, otherwise Jondy would have a whole other job on her hands. They also couldn't drive the car here because Sate would hear that coming before they were halfway to him. With the city so empty, there were hardly any sounds. A car would stick out almost embarrassingly.

It seemed to take forever to reach Elm Street, but with Ben following his nose, it was an easy enough undertaking. Jondy's eyes swept up the street and suddenly, for no apparent reason, she chuckled. "Do you think something about this is funny?" Ben asked curiously as he stared down at his grinning sister.

"Well, it's not really funny, but do you suppose he lives in that one?" She pointed to a house at the end of the street, where the address on the side clearly read 666. Ben smirked at the unoriginality of the concept.

"The least he could have done was give us a challenge," he observed quietly, smiling slightly in spite of himself. "Okay, let's get this over with."

They approached the house quietly, moving around it to see which room Sate was in. It was somewhat difficult to see through the red glass of Sate's windows, but they eventually found him in what appeared to be the kitchen. He was unpacking things from a cooler and moving them to the refrigerator. "Okay," Ben whispered as they ducked down below the window, "you're going to go around and find where Kay is. Situate yourself as close to her as you can manage, and then we'll make our move. My aim has been off since I was shot, so I can't guarantee I'll kill him with the first shot. I may end up fighting him, but I don't want you to come back for me. Just take Kay and get out of here."

Jondy didn't like the thought of leaving him alone with Sate, but she didn't have much choice. She just wished Zack and Brin would call to find out where they were so they could help. She would feel so much better if Zack and Brin were helping Ben out. Reluctantly following Ben's orders, she circled the house until she spotted Kay in the living room, then moved to the closest window. She gave one sharp whistle to signal that she was ready, and then the attack was on.

Sate had heard the whistle, but he didn't have time to gather himself before a bullet drove into his left shoulder. It wasn't that he had moved to avoid Ben, it was more the fact that Ben hadn't appreciated just how tall he was until he actually fired. Sate whipped back around and shattered the window with his arm as he grabbed Ben around the neck and pulled him in. He glared at him suspiciously as he dropped him to the floor. He knew him from somewhere, but he couldn't place him. Ben really didn't give him much time, instead he kicked out and struck Sate in the shin, resulting in a loud crack and Sate joining him on the floor. Sate's eyes sent Ben sliding backwards across the floor, which gave him time to look into the living room. His attacker was a transgenic, which clearly meant that he wasn't the real objective here.

Kay jumped when she heard a window near her head smash apart. It didn't quite smother the sound of the gunshot, but at least that sounded like it came from the kitchen. Suddenly, a hand was on her shoulder pulling her up into a sitting position. "Who are you?" she asked quickly.

Jondy hesitated and waved her hand in front of Kay's face. "Are you blind?" she asked in shock.

"Jondy?"

"Yeah, it's me. Come on, I don't think Ben killed Sate. We've got to get moving."

Kay wrapped an arm around Jondy's shoulder as she hoisted her up, but suddenly both women went flying into the nearest wall. Kay grunted in pain as her head bounced off the wall. That was the last thing she needed right now. Jondy didn't have much choice but to let go of Kay as she started to slide again. Sate wasn't aiming to add Kay to this, it was just the fact that Jondy had been holding onto her, but it was obvious that Kay couldn't handle much more violence. The small of her back connected forcefully with the doorknob as he sent her into the door. She gasped in pain and pushed herself away from the door right away, only to be shoved back into it. Sate pushed himself to his feet and ran into the living room. He didn't have much time before Ben was up again, and he knew the X5 was considerably faster than him. Jondy struggled to pull herself away from the door, but she couldn't move any more than an inch. Sate came to a halt just in front of her, glowering down into her face.

"I don't really appreciate uninvited guests," he growled, grabbing her hair in one hand and pulling her up to his eye level, which meant her feet were dangling about a foot and a half above the ground.

"Really? Well, I don't exactly appreciate having my personal space invaded by an inbred freak of nature," she spat back, throwing out her leg while his eyes weren't holding it still and driving her knee into his stomach. He didn't even react, he simply threw her into Kay, who had managed to stay standing after her collision with the wall, but now was forced to drop back to the ground.

Everyone jumped as Ben fired again from the entranceway to the kitchen, this time hitting Sate in the other shoulder. Sate rolled his eyes and dragged the gun out of Ben's hands without moving a muscle. "Why do you insist on irritating me?" he snapped in frustration. "The least you could do is kill me the first time."

As Ben ran forward, Jondy picked Kay up awkwardly and headed for the kitchen. She just started to feel the pull of Sate's eyes when she turned the corner. She sighed with relief as she braced Kay against a counter and opened the back door. She hated it when Sate used his telekinesis on her. It was the strangest thing she had ever experienced. Kay listened to her open the door, but she still didn't feel quite secure. She could hear Ben still fighting with Sate in the other room, and if she had to guess, she would say that Ben was losing. Her fingers slid over the drawers behind her until they connected with a handle. She pulled it open and dug around inside, cringing slightly when her hand brushed roughly against a knife. She wrapped her fingers around the handle and pulled it out, feeling slightly safer with the cool blade resting against her back.

Just as Jondy carried Kay around the side of the house, Ben came flying out the same window that she had gone in through. She had to stop short to avoid running into him. She didn't even have time to start moving again before Sate grabbed her from behind, pinning her against him as he used one arm to push Kay out of hers. "Nice try," he murmured next to her ear, just before he threw her into the side of his house. Ben was still lying on his back, struggling to catch his breath and regain his bearings, so Sate didn't even come across any interference as he picked Kay up and took off down the street. He sidestepped into an alley so he could readjust Kay's weight on his shoulder. "Maybe I should find wherever they came from so I can pick up your daughter. That man back there is the one taking care of her, isn't he? Well, who's watching her now?"

Kay gritted her teeth and slipped the knife out of her sleeve. He couldn't see anything she was doing because the top half of her body was behind his back, so he never had a chance to prepare himself for when she plunged the blade in between his ribs. Taken completely by surprise, he stumbled and dropped her on the ground, reaching behind his back for the knife. Kay knew she must have punctured one of his lungs, judging by his suddenly raspy breath. With the sudden rush of having the upper hand, she shakily pushed herself to her feet and reached out in his direction, latching firmly onto his arm when it bumped into her hands. He tried to brush her off absent-mindedly, but her fingers had already found the handle of the knife again. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck, fastening herself firmly to his back, and reached in front of him to drive the knife into his chest. He threw his weight backwards, crushing her against the side of another house, but it didn't slow her down. As though she was doing it against her will, she continuously pulled the knife out and pushed it back in as fast as she could, which wasn't very impressive currently, but it was doing damage all the same. Sate managed to block a lot of her attacks, but that first, unexpected stab had done enough damage to prevent him from simply tossing her aside, as he normally would have done.

It seemed to take forever before Kay felt him collapse beneath her, and by then she was almost completely winded. She couldn't believe she had actually had the strength for that, but the energy that had rushed through her was now rapidly draining away. She rolled away from him wearily, smiling in relief as she heard his raspy breathing finally come to an end. As her exhaustion finally took over, she found comfort in the thought that this whole nightmare might be over now.

Jondy groaned as she headed towards Ben, who still hadn't moved from his spot on the ground. She hadn't expected anything of that magnitude when she came here. Ben was supposed to be the one doing all the fighting right now, not her. She kneeled down next to him and tilted his head to the side gently, cringing when she saw the deep gash across his temple. She hadn't noticed all the blood before, but now she could see why he hadn't gotten up right away. "Can you get up?" she asked nervously, her stomach tightening in panic as blood gushed out of the wound.

"I don't know, I'm not sure I should do anything physical until we get this to stop bleeding," he replied blearily. Sate had banged his head off a few of the counters in the kitchen, so his migraine had returned in full force. Every little movement, flash of light, and sound made him feel like someone was pounding a rock against the side of his head. It was going to take him a while to recover from this fight.

Suddenly, Zack's car pulled up outside Sate's house, followed closely by Max's and Alec's motorcycles. Jondy smiled in relief when Alec leapt off his motorcycle and ran towards her, pulling her tightly against him the moment he reached her. "Did you really have to go out on a rescue mission the moment that I wasn't around to watch over you?"

She smiled against his chest, thankful for the warm stability it offered. "I don't need you to watch over me, I can do just fine on my own." She leaned back and looked up at him curiously. "How did you know we were here?"

Zack slowed near them as he headed for Ben. "The same way you guys got here, we followed our noses. Brin and I went back to Logan's house to pick up some explosives, and it turned out that Max and Alec were waiting for us. Max had called to find out how our scouting mission went and became worried when no one answered. They both knew what we must have done, so they came back and waited around for us. They helped us set up the charges, I'm really surprised you didn't hear that college blow sky high."

"I don't think we could have heard much with all the banging going on in that house."

Zack glanced at the house, taking in all the broken glass around it. "What happened here? Did you get Kay?"

Jondy shook her head. "Sate ran off with her again. They were on foot, so I don't know how far he really could have gotten, but he is dead set on keeping her."

Max had just swung her leg off her motorcycle, but as soon as she heard Jondy's words, she slid back on. "Well then, there's no way he can outrun me on this. Anyone coming with me?"

Brin climbed out of the car and headed for her. "Yeah, I'll come. We can't let any guys go, and as long as I can get a clear shot, Sate doesn't really stand a chance." She fingered the gun at her hip threateningly. She was only waiting for another opportunity to use it again. Her trigger hand was still just fine, and absolutely nothing was wrong with her aim. She jumped onto Alec's motorcycle and called out, "Hey, you don't mind if I use this, do you?"

He turned back to her and rolled his eyes, always keeping one protective hand on Jondy. "Do I have a choice?" he replied. She smiled and started it up, taking off after Max. The strange thing was that they hadn't even been driving for thirty seconds when Max squealed to a stop. She ran for a nearby alley and disappeared inside as Brin stopped Alec's motorcycle and got off. Before she even had a chance to reach the alley, Max came back out with an unconscious Kay in her arms. Brin gasped in horror and clapped a hand over her mouth in shock. Although Jondy had told her what Sate had done in the garage, she couldn't have prepared herself for the way her sister looked right now. It looked as though Kay had undergone the ultimate beating.

"Why does she look like this?" Max asked in a panic. "What happened? You only told me that Sate had kidnapped her from the familiars, you never mentioned anything about this."

"That's the reason we actually started the rescue mission. It wasn't until we showed up at the college to get her out of there that we discovered Sate had taken her. Sate really let loose on her, you would never believe how much blood was in that garage by the time he was through with her. Hey, if you found her in there, then where is he?"

Max glanced uncomfortably back into the alley. "Well, he's in there too, but it looks like Kay got her hands on a knife. She took care of him for us. It must have completely worn her out, because I think all she's doing right now is sleeping. It's a pretty deep sleep, but I think that's all she's doing. Come on, let's get her back to the car."

Ben had already been situated comfortably in the front seat of the car when Max and Brin came back. The scent of Kay's heat cycle immediately assaulted him when they opened the back door, but it was pushed completely out of his mind when Max shut the door again and he turned to see Kay flopped out over the back seat. How could anyone look like that and still be alive? She looked as though she had gone through a paper shredder, or at least her clothes had. It didn't make much difference though, her flesh was too torn up to be revealing. She made a faint, hardly audible noise in the back of her throat and twisted sharply on the seat. Her eyes were darting back and forth wildly beneath her closed eyelids, and the sudden increase in her breathing rate made it fairly obvious that she was having a nightmare. Her arm snapped up and landed on the counsel between his and the driver's seat. Her hand continually clenched and unclenched as her nightmare gathered momentum, and, without thinking, he reached out and placed his hand in hers. As soon as her fingers closed around his, her body relaxed and her eyes stopped moving. The only thing that didn't loosen up was her hand's grip on his, which remained as strong as before, although it didn't seem quite as tense. Her breathing slowed until he knew she was back to a regular deep sleep again.

Jondy opened the driver's door and sat down, sighing with relief as her body sank into the seat. "God, I can't wait to just go home and get some sleep," she declared gratefully. She started up the car and grinned when she glanced in the rearview mirror. "There's going to be a big fight back there, because Max and Alec both want to drive their own motorcycles, but neither Brin or Zack want to ride with Alec." She continued to muse on what could break out behind them, never noticing the way Ben was staring down at his own hand clasped firmly in Kay's. Did she even know whose hand she was holding? He doubted it, but the thought wouldn't leave his mind. He took a deep breath and turned to look out the window, never pulling his hand away from its current resting place. It was all over, and now at least everyone could get the whole story. He didn't know if that was good or bad, all he knew was that everyone needed the closure.

* * *

Author's Note: As always, please read and review! 


	18. Family Bonding

Disclaimer: Seeing as how I killed off Sate, Curtis, and Jacob, the only original characters I have left are Kay and Paige. It's nice to cut that list down a little bit. :)

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 17: Family Bonding

Logan sat on the edge of his bed, rocking Paige gently as he tried to convince her to fall back asleep. It had been rather unnerving to come home and find Paige completely alone, with the exception of White in the basement. He couldn't believe everyone had left her alone, especially Ben, who had practically adopted the little girl. At least she hadn't been aware of her lack of company, she had been sound asleep when he came home. It wasn't much longer after that when everyone came home in one giant herd. Ben had strode past with a completely blood-soaked rag pressed firmly against his temple, Jondy had followed right behind him, rubbing her back gingerly as she walked. Then Max and Brin carried in Kay, who looked considerably more tattered than she had been the last time he had seen her, followed by Zack and Alec, who were in a terrible mood because they had been forced to ride together on Alec's motorcycle. While Ben flopped out in the cluttered office and Kay was settled in the guest room with the door locked so the pheromones couldn't inadvertently attract any of the guys inside, Jondy filled him in on everything that had happened while he was gone. By the time it was over, however, he had come to a very happy conclusion. He was almost sure that White had been dealing with the head of the cult when he was trying to get back into their good graces, and he strongly suspected that their leader had been in the college when it was blown up. Now not only were Kay's eggs gone, but so was the High Priest. What no one really knew, however, was that the High Priest hadn't died in the explosion. He had taken a bullet in the forehead from Zack in the garage before he ever had the idea to bring in explosives.

Now everyone was just relaxing in their own way, which meant that Jondy and Alec had fallen asleep on the couch, Brin and Zack were on the front porch dozing, Ben was still in the office napping, and Max was sleeping on the bed behind him. He hadn't really seen her sleep for a long time, so he was relieved that she was finally catching up on it. This meant, however, that he was the only one left over to watch Paige. She wasn't very difficult, he had only had to change her diaper and feed her one time each. Now, though, she seemed to be in an odd state where she didn't want to gaze around at her surroundings like she usually enjoyed doing so much, but she also didn't want to go to sleep. She seemed perfectly content to just lie silently in his arms, staring into distant space as though she were pondering the mysteries of the world. She looked so serious that Logan could hardly believe he was looking at a young baby.

He stood up carefully, not wanting to wake Max, and walked quietly down the hall. He didn't really have a destination in mind, he merely felt the need to stretch his legs. Funny how that need had grown so much after Joshua's blood gave him back the use of his legs. He never used to enjoy walking mindlessly around, but now it was one of his favorite ways to think. As he passed by the door to the guest room, he glanced back down at Paige. Was it possible that she could sense her mother nearby? Was that why she was so quiet right now? Without warning, she let out a piercing cry that immediately woke everyone inside the house. Even Brin and Zack came in from outside to see what was upsetting her.

Max was the first to reach him, and she seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he was. She held out her arms to take Paige from him and unlocked the door. The only X5 male to move to the front of the group was Ben, although he was wincing from the sharp noises emitting from Paige. Jondy peered around him, then it occurred to her that she had never shared one crucial piece of information with everyone. "Max, you'll have to be careful handing Paige over to her, she can't see right now."

Max paused and turned to face her. "What do you mean she can't see?"

"I guess Sate slammed her head against something and it did something to her eyes, because at the moment she's blind. I don't think it will be permanent, especially with her DNA, but I doubt she's recovered in the past couple hours." With a slightly disconcerted look on her face, Max sat down on the edge of the bed. Amazingly, Kay still hadn't woken up yet, but it was only a matter of time. How could she possibly stay asleep with that racket?

Kay could hear the crying, but she couldn't seem to respond. She felt so completely drained that it seemed an incredible undertaking to open her eyes. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get her eyelids to budge. _Dammit Kay, get up! Paige is right there, you can hear her, so why won't you move?_ For once that annoying little voice was pestering her to do something positive. _Have you waited this long just to lie here and let her cry?_ That thought almost made her eyelids twitch, but it wasn't quite enough. _Fine, I guess you really didn't want to see her that badly after all. You can always let Ben take care of her, after all, he's probably replaced you in her heart anyway._ Now her eyelids definitely fluttered. She couldn't see anything other than the darkness that she had become accustomed to in such a short time, but it was still progress. _You call that progress? That certainly wouldn't have protected her from Sate if he were here instead of the other X5s. Or maybe you wanted him to put her out of her misery before you had the chance to ruin her life?_ Finally, her eyes popped open. Well, 'pop' really wasn't the correct term, it didn't happen quite that fast, but it was the best she could manage. Had she been at normal strength, 'pop' would have been an understatement.

"Paige?" she mumbled quietly, wishing desperately that she could see so that she could see how much her daughter had grown in their time apart. She tried to brace her hands against the bed to push herself into a sitting position, but she simply didn't have to power to do it. Brin slid into the room and helped her up. As her sleek black hair brushed against Kay's face, the smell of her shampoo filled her nostrils. "Brin? Is that you?" She couldn't believe how dry and cracked her voice sounded, but now that she noticed it, she realized just how thirsty she was. That wasn't the foremost thing on her mind, however. With one hand still clutching Brin's arm, she reached out with her other hand in the direction that Paige's cries were coming from. Her fingers finally touched the baby blanket, and from there trailed up to run lightly over Paige's hair. It felt like there was much more of it than there had been the last time she'd been with her.

"Do you think you can hold her?" Max asked cautiously. "Don't say yes just because you want to, I want to make sure you're strong enough for this."

"Are you kidding?" Kay asked in disbelief. "Of course I'm strong enough for this." She removed her hand from Brin and held out both arms as Max gently placed Paige into them. As she finally pulled her daughter against her, immediately erasing her frantic cries, she whispered softly, "Do you mind if I have a little time alone with her?" A tear of sheer ecstasy slipped down her cheek as her daughter's familiar scent reached her and the warmth of her tiny body spread in her arms.

"Of course," Max replied, overwhelmed by the sight of the reunion. Despite the cuts and her current blindness, Kay had probably never had a more joyous and contented look on her face. Max had never seen her sister with that particular expression on her face during the entire time they knew each other. Everyone backed out of the doorway to give her room as she approached, but Ben stepped farther into the room. Max gave him a questioning look, but the pained gaze he was sending in Kay and Paige's direction was enough for her. She stepped past him and closed the door behind herself.

Ben had never been so confused in his life. He had wanted so badly to be angry with Kay, to make her feel horrible about what she had done, but at the same time he had never seen her look so happy and he simply didn't want to interrupt that. He sat down carefully in a chair across the room, never taking his eyes off Kay's face. Constantly telling himself that Kay wasn't the mothering type and that Paige would be better off without her had been his biggest source of comfort after he had discovered Paige's true identity, but even he had to admit that he would have to eat his words. She looked as loving right now as a mother dog bathing her pups. There were no doubts left over about what kind of mother she had been during her short time with Paige. What better caregiver could a child ask for? He wanted desperately to say something, perhaps to disrupt her happiness, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He just wasn't that cruel.

"God, I missed you so much," Kay whispered, letting a few more tears escape their confines. She held Paige as tightly against herself as she could without hurting her. How could she have ever considered throwing this away and leaving her with someone else? How could she have ever let it cross her mind? She found Paige's forehead carefully and placed a gentle kiss on it, reveling at the soft skin that had always amazed her. Everything about her little girl was perfect. Now if only she could see her. "I thought about you all the time," she said blissfully. "I don't think I ever went more than five minutes without thinking about you. I'm just so glad you didn't get taken there with me. At least I knew you were safe here."

As time wore on, Kay slowly became aware that someone else was in the room. She had the very distinct feeling of being watched, and every now and then she could have sworn that she heard someone breathing on the other side of the room. Finally, she lifted her head from Paige and her eyes blankly pointed in the direction of the breathing. "Who's there?" she asked tentatively. She hadn't forgotten her reunion with everyone, so maybe someone sitting in the room with her wasn't such a good thing.

Ben hesitated, but he knew he couldn't talk to her right now. He stood up and walked to the door, not bothering to be quiet. Just as he opened the door, she said curiously, "Ben?" He paused in the doorway, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything, although he knew the sigh of frustration with himself that came out a little too loudly confirmed what she was thinking.

Kay wasn't sure what to think when the door slammed shut and she heard his footsteps in the hallway. Why hadn't he said anything? And why had he chosen to sit there for so long without letting her know he was there? She wanted to ask him about everything that had gone on with Paige while he had her, and maybe find out why he had taken her in the first place. Had he known who Paige was? If he didn't, what was the point of taking a baby that meant nothing to him, and why was he even in Montana at all? None of it made any sense, and now that she had the time to relax and enjoy the fact that her captivity was over, she wanted answers to her questions. The main thing she wanted to know was that Paige had been well taken care of. She didn't think that Ben would deliberately do damage to a baby, but he wasn't used to handling them. He may have unintentionally done something wrong. Paige seemed happy enough, though, so she wasn't too concerned. The biggest relief was that she was still perfectly content in her mother's arms. She didn't think she could take it if she had come back and Paige didn't want her to hold her. At least now she could pick up where she left off.

* * *

Max perched herself on the kitchen table with her elbows braced on her knees and her chin resting in her hands. At least everything was finally over, now they could all get to the healing process. She knew that Ben and Zack in particular needed the greatest amount of healing; Ben because of how badly his relationship with Kay had ended and everything that had happened afterwards, and Zack because he needed to be able to forgive himself for the actions he had taken against her. He was no longer waiting for an explanation from her, he simply wanted to ease his conscience over what he had done. It was easily the cruelest thing he could have possibly come up with and he had never let himself forget it.

"What are you thinking about?" Logan asked as he walked into the kitchen. She hadn't looked this serious in a long time.

She gave him a tight smile. "Everything. There's a lot to think over. Mostly I'm just worrying about Ben. He's just so unstable that I'm worried about what will happen if he gets into a fight with Kay. Obviously I wouldn't be too concerned about a physical fight, at the moment we both know who would win, but Kay can be really harsh with her words when she wants to be. Sometimes Ben strikes me as a completely lost, confused little boy, and we already know what happened when he lost Kay the last time; he went straight back to killing. The thing is I don't think it satisfies him as much as it used to, and if she pushes him any farther off the deep end, then I'm really worried about what he could do. He has such strange needs; if he becomes much more frustrated, I may end up facing the same decision as last time, only this time I'll have my family with me. I love him, but we just can't allow him to become any worse than he already is."

Ben leaned against the wall of the hallway outside the kitchen, grinding his teeth the entire time. What right did Max have to judge him? She didn't show it in the same ways that he did, but she was just as much of a chaotic jumble of emotions as he was. All of them were, mainly because of the way they grew up. They were raised to not have any emotions, but once they were in the outside world and they realized that all of those feelings were actually swirling around inside of them, waiting to be unleashed, things got completely out of control. They hadn't been taught to deal with emotions, only to repress them completely. Now that they were aware of their existence, they couldn't just forget about them, so they tried to repress them as they'd been taught, but it backfired completely. He knew that one way or another they had all had a breakdown at some point because the feelings didn't just disappear, they simply built up inside until the dam burst and they came flooding back out in a mad, uncontrollable torrent that crashed around in their confused brains until they nearly went crazy. In Ben's case, it was enough to really push him over the edge.

The fact was, though, that Ben wasn't completely insane, as everyone liked to believe. It was just easier to label him "crazy" because then they could excuse anything he did by merely saying, "Oh, it's only because he's nuts. It's not really his fault." But he knew better. He had more control over the urges inside of him than he liked to admit to himself. Through his teenage years he had consoled himself by constantly saying that he had no control over killing, it just happened, but he became very much aware of his actual level of control when he fell in love with Kay. He knew he had hurt her by killing her friend Vic, so somehow he managed to force away that need. It just didn't seem as prevalent anymore, anyway. Why did he need to kill? He had Kay, and he didn't really need anything else. After the whole mess so many months ago, when he had reverted to the way he used to be, he realized that killing wasn't quite enough. That was why he had taken Paige. He had thought luring in all those familiars and killing all of them would somehow fill that gap in his life, but even now he realized how ridiculous that was.

As Zack and Brin walked past, Brin paused next to him. "Are you okay? You look really serious."

He forced a smile and did his best to give a nonchalant shrug. "I'm fine, it's just been a really long day. My mind must have wandered off. How are you? Your arm doesn't look so great."

She almost tried to shrug, but then realized just how painful that would be. "Nah, it'll be all right. I'm just not going to be able to throw any left hooks for a while. At least now I actually have an excuse to take off work. If I let it get a little worse, I can shove a gangrenous bullet wound under Normal's nose and see what he thinks about that. I can tell him that I was shot doing a run for him. Maybe I'll even get paid vacation time while I'm recuperating."

Now Ben honestly smiled a little, even though it still wasn't the smile that he used to have at the farm. "And of course you'll tell him that X5s take as long as ordinaries to recover, right? You and I both know that's going to heal in a couple of days."

She pressed a finger to her lips secretively. "Shhh, Normal doesn't need to know that."

Alec glanced at her as he and Jondy walked past, rolling his eyes. "Geez, maybe I should have gotten shot too."

Brin smirked at him. "Kind of hard when you don't get involved in the action."

"Touché," he called back as he entered the kitchen. Jondy stepped back out into the hallway with her arms crossed. "Couldn't you at least try to be a little nicer to him?"

Brin's eyes widened innocently. "Hey, I think I've been doing a pretty good job so far. Besides, he knows I'm just kidding. If I really wanted to be mean, I'd do it, trust me. He'd know it, too. How are you feeling? Fighting with Sate didn't hurt the baby, did it?"

Jondy shrugged. "Not as far as I know. If I were going to have a miscarriage, I think I would have felt something by now. Our bodies are tough, my baby practically has armor protecting it in there."

Brin grinned. "Now there's a mental image."

Ben knew that they were just unwinding after the tension of the day and joking around like this was their way of getting rid of the tension, but he felt like their light-heartedness was putting miles between him and them. They wanted to forget about the confusion while he wanted to dwell on it until he figured everything out, and only when that happened would he feel better. He really wished he could just cut loose like his siblings when everything started to pile up on him, but he had never been good at that. Brin noticed the look on his face and she grabbed his arm quickly. "Hey, let's go get something to drink. How's your head?"

As they walked into the kitchen, he shrugged. "It's okay, the nap really helped, but it's not a hundred percent again." He had to admit that it felt really good to get a drink of water. He hadn't realized just how parched his throat was. It seemed as though everyone felt the same way as he did, because they all looked as though they were enjoying their water a little more than they usually did.

As Logan watched everyone greedily quench their thirst, Kay's face immediately jumped into his head. If anyone needed a drink of water, she did. As everyone joked around and continued to virtually inhale their bottles, Logan picked up a couple bottles when no one was looking and headed for the guest room. There was no reason to involve everyone in this as long as they were in a good mood. Besides, he was only going to give her a drink.

Kay's head shot up when she heard the door open, but Logan immediately let her know it was him. "I thought you might be thirsty," he said quietly, not wanting his voice to carry to the other room. She smiled faintly and nodded, listening curiously as he shut the door. As he moved almost silently across the room towards her, she quickly realized that he hadn't come here with the others' knowledge. "So, how are you doing?" he asked as he placed the bottle in her hand.

She took a large gulp before she spoke, sighing as she instantly felt the moisture settle into the dry skin in her throat. "Thanks for the drink. I'm not feeling too bad, I actually expected it to be a lot worse. I'm just glad to be back with Paige. I guess now you know what I was looking for."

He smiled as he looked at the contentedly sleeping baby in her arms. "Yeah, and I can see why you had such a hard time when the electricity went out and I couldn't make any progress. Just to let you know, she's been living here with Ben for the past week, ever since we found out just who she was. She had a terrible headache for the first couple days, but she's back to normal now, or at least Ben says this is how she was when he first got her. She's been in good hands. Brin and Max have gone nuts over her, but she really doesn't respond to anyone other than Ben. This is the first time I've really seen her happy in someone else's arms. Oh, and another useful bit of information you might want to know; Ames White is currently chained up in my basement. I'll bet you already know what everyone else wants to do to him, but we thought it would be best if we found out where Ray was first. Do you have any idea where he would have left him?"

She shook her head, taking another swig from her bottle. "No, I really didn't know much about the people that Ames trusted. He wouldn't have left Ray with one of his friends, because the cult could track that down too easily, but I don't know who Ames would have felt secure in leaving him with. I'm surprised everyone left him alive this long."

"Me too, because other than informing us about what happened to you after you two left the big fight, we didn't have any other uses for him. Max is usually the one who takes food down to him because she's the only one who can tolerate his constant sarcasm. Even she's getting ready to shove a plastic bag over his head."

Despite the pain it brought to her face, Kay had to grin. "You have no idea how many times I wanted to do that." She paused for a moment, then decided that she ought to voice one of the things that was bothering her. "How come Zack hasn't been in here? I would have expected him to be the first one to start interrogating me about who all the familiars were wherever I was so that he could start eliminating them."

"Well, there's a couple reasons for that. First of all, he blew up the college you were at, so I'm pretty sure all of your captors are dead. Secondly, he can't even come in here. You're in heat."

Kay's eyebrows jumped up in surprise. "Really? I hadn't even noticed. No wonder Sate kept complaining about something smelling funny. I never noticed it, but then again I wouldn't, would I? But then how was Ben able to stay in here so long?"

"How did you know he was here? I didn't think he would have let you know."

"I'm blind, not stupid. He must have sat over there for at least ten minutes before I got sick of waiting for him to say something and I asked if anyone was there. Then he just got up and left. It kind of creeped me out to tell you the truth. Here I am being all mushy while I'm reuniting with my daughter, and someone can just watch me like I'm on live television. If I had wanted an audience, I wouldn't have asked to be alone with Paige."

Logan didn't really know what to say, it wasn't like he knew what was running through Ben's deranged mind, but he understood how that could make her feel extremely exposed. No one liked an audience when they were baring their emotions for the world to see. She had wanted her reunion to be private, as it should have been, but her blindness left her incredibly vulnerable. Ben probably would have still been sitting in the room if she hadn't said anything. As he thought, his eyes wandered over to Paige. That's when he noticed that some of Kay's dried blood was rubbing off on the baby blanket. "You know, I really hate to even suggest this when I know you want to spend time with Paige, but I think it would be a good idea if you took a shower. Not only do we not want that smell sticking around with Paige, but it's also probably better for you if you get your wounds cleaned out now, before they get the chance to get infected."

Kay bit her lip hesitantly, she really wanted to spend more time with Paige, but he was right, it would be best if she took a shower right now. "I'm not sure how capable I am at the moment…" she started timidly, but he cut her off before she could finish.

"Do you want me to go get the girls?"

She smiled sheepishly and nodded. "Yeah, if you would."

Five minutes later, Brin was helping Kay into the bathroom. They really didn't need more than one person to help, and Kay didn't really want to make a big deal out of this. It wasn't like she needed them to do _everything_, she just needed their help in pointing out where everything was. Plus it would probably be a good idea to have someone sitting outside the shower stall in case she collapsed. It hadn't been easy to hand Paige over to Max again, but she comforted herself with the fact that now she could hold her daughter anytime she wanted. Besides, she didn't want her daughter to start associating her with the scent of blood.

When they were next to the shower stall, Brin took Kay's hand and started setting it on the objects she named. "Here's the soap, up here's the shampoo, there's conditioner here if you want it, and I'll get you a fresh rag. Just let me know if you come across any big wounds that you want me to take a look at. We might have to use some alcohol on some of them."

Kay knew that Brin was being overly nice to make up for her original cold reception. Not that she minded, but she knew it didn't change the fact that she was going to have to give a very long explanation as soon as they deemed her healthy enough. Once her tattered clothes were off and the lukewarm water was streaming over her body, her fingers landed tentatively on the bar of soap. _This is not going to be fun._ Brin listened silently while she sat on the closed toilet seat as Kay gasped quietly with pain every time soap entered a new wound. They would have just used normal water and later cleaned the wounds with alcohol, but they were running kind of low, so as painful as it was, Kay would have to endure the stinging. It wasn't like the alcohol would feel much better. When it sounded like Kay was doing fine on her own, Brin quickly ran into Logan's bedroom and pulled out a set of Max's clothes. If she wasn't mistaken, Kay had already been wearing some of Max's clothes when she was turned into a human shredder victim. At least this time they didn't have to worry about that happening again.

Max was waiting impatiently in the guest room when the two women returned, gently rocking Paige. Kay slid into bed and immediately accepted her daughter back into her arms. Even that short separation seemed like too much right now. She settled herself happily into her soft position on the bed, but soon became strongly aware that Max and Brin were still standing right there. She didn't even have to guess at what they wanted. "Sit down, this might take a while."

* * *

Author's Note: Please read and review! 


	19. Clearing the Air

Author's Note: Sorry **steph**, but I think most of Alec and Jondy's storyline is wrapped up. I've glanced through my remaining chapters and there isn't much left involving those two. My main focus right now is Kay.

Disclaimer: Only Kay and Paige. That works for me.

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 18: Clearing the Air

Brin waited patiently with her fingers folded in her lap while Max was obviously fighting the urge to pace next to her as they waited for Kay to start. Kay couldn't see them, but in her mind's eye she could guess at what they looked like right now. She didn't account for the hair changes, as she didn't know about them, but her mental image wasn't too far off the mark. She was surprised that Max hadn't given in and started pacing all around near the foot of the bed. _I probably shouldn't keep them waiting any longer. It's time to get this over with._ She thought she heard someone else in the hallway, but whoever it was didn't come in. She strongly suspected that it was Ben. "Okay, I know you want to hear everything, but first I want to know just what Ames told you. That way I don't just repeat everything he said."

"Well, he told us that you passed out after fighting Thula and that Ray came in and convinced him to take you to the hospital instead of killing you, which was what he wanted to do. At the hospital he found out you were pregnant and he took you into hiding with him, and things went downhill from there. He said you became seriously depressed and even suicidal, but you got better by the end of the pregnancy. I don't want to get something started right away, but I think all of us have thought it at least once since we heard that. Why did things get better?"

Kay knew she didn't need to bother answering that. "You're right, that will probably start a fight."

Max sighed and dropped her eyes to her feet. "So things became sexual again?" Ben's stomach tightened in the hallway. Did he really want to hear the answer to this?

Kay hesitated, but she knew there was no point drawing this out. "Yeah, that started back up again." She paused for a moment, but she got the strong sense that they were waiting for her to continue. "I was five months along when Ames finally got sick of my depression. He had a day off work, and he really chewed me out for how I'd been acting. I wasn't responding to anything he said, so he went a little further. I don't think I really need to finish. It's not like we had a serious relationship, our feelings were no different from what they've always been, we were just using each other to keep from going completely insane."

"You don't have any feelings for him?"

Why did she even have to ask that? Her voice very quickly became tense and angry. "After what he tried to pull with Paige? What do you think? I always knew that he was capable of doing bad things, that's a given, but I never thought that he would do something to endanger one of his kids. I should have gotten out of there a long time ago."

"Would you have come here?" Brin asked automatically. She regretted it almost immediately, maybe this wasn't something she was going to want to hear.

Kay shrugged. "I really don't know. I was in a strange state of mind, so I can't tell you what I would have done. I probably would have come back if one of you came across me somewhere and invited me back, but I don't know if I would have been able to come back on my own." She tilted her head down in Paige's direction. "That's the whole reason I let Ames take me away in the first place. I didn't want any of you to know about my pregnancy."

Brin shook her head in confusion. "Did you think we wouldn't understand? You must have gotten pregnant during your heat cycle, so it was actually Zack's fault. We wouldn't have blamed you. We probably would have had a hard time accepting it, but we would have been there for you. You wouldn't have spent eight months living with someone you hated. You would have been with your friends, you probably wouldn't have been suicidal, and this whole mess might not have happened. We might have been able to see the familiars coming and at least have had a shot at protecting you."

__

Well, this certainly isn't going in a very good direction. "Are you trying to tell me that I completely fucked up? You don't have to tell me that, I already know, but I don't think you would have taken it as well as you're trying to say. I would have probably been given the whole if-you-hadn't-slept-with-him-in-the-first-place-this-wouldn't-have-happened-at-all routine. Even if I wasn't with Ames, it would have been a lot easier to stay away."

Max gritted her teeth angrily. "Is that what you're planning on doing when you're healthy enough? Are you just going to run off again?"

Kay shrugged again, wishing that she had just been able to get away with Paige in Montana and didn't have to deal with any of this at all. "I don't know. Right now I'm just taking it one day at a time. I know that's not what you want to hear, but I think you'd be even more pissed if I lied to you, so there it is."

Neither Brin nor Max was very happy with that conversation. If they had thought that everything was going to be like it used to be, they were dead wrong. Max shook her head in frustration and swept out of the room, unable to listen to any more. Brin wasn't quite ready to follow, she still wanted to find the old connection she had once had with her sister. Kay tilted her head as she listened to Max's footsteps disappear down the hallway. "Who left?"

"Max did," Brin replied quietly. Kay hated the thought of swallowing her pride, but as long as she was alone with Brin, this was the best time to do it. That interrogation hadn't given her much of a chance to get back into their good graces, so she would have to give it her best shot now.

"Look, I know you guys aren't happy with me, and I can understand that, but you have to know that I really missed all of you. That was one of the worst parts about having to live with Ames, but I was scared that if I went back and tried to patch things up with you that I'd just make things worse. I'm pretty talented at that, as I've discovered over the past year. I just didn't want to completely ruin everything we used to have. Everything used to be so good. I know it was complicated, but that was the happiest I've ever been. It was the first time I got to feel like I had a family, I fell in love, and I was free. How could things have been better?"

Brin sighed sadly. "They could have lasted."

Kay nodded. "Yeah, that would have been better. I know it sounds weird, but that's the reason I don't feel comfortable staying. It's just so depressing when I'm with all of you now and I know that nothing is ever going to be like that again. I don't think we could even manage to come close to that. I just want to leave before things can get any worse."

Brin glanced back at the doorway, which she knew Ben was standing right next to. "What about Ben?" Ben's ears perked up at this. He really had no idea what she would say, and he wasn't sure he wanted to find out, but he couldn't spend the rest of his life being curious.

"That's even more complicated than everything else. When we talked at the big fight and he accused me of basically ruining everything, I really bristled against him and pushed him away, which made everything a million times worse. Do you realize how different things would have been if I hadn't gotten mad or if I had managed to explain things right? I also don't think he should have spoken to me like that, but I can only pretend to go back and change the things I did, not him. If he hadn't left so angry, we might have made up right then. Ames would have come back to kill me and perhaps the Skeptic would have killed him. We might have taken Ray with us and went away somewhere so Ben could recover in peace. I think if it went more like that when I found out I was pregnant, then maybe we would have ignored the fact that it wasn't his baby and we could have just pretended it was his. We would have eventually come back here, and I think the revelation that he was alive would have softened everyone's reaction to me and things would have been okay. Wouldn't that have been a perfect world?"

"Actually, in a perfect world you probably wouldn't have gotten pregnant with White's baby in the first place, but we can't do much about that and I don't think you'd want to, am I right?"

Kay smiled and gave Paige a gentle squeeze. "There's no way I would want to turn back the clock and stop Paige from being born. The circumstances completely sucked, but she's perfect. You have no idea how much time I spent just hovering over her crib right after she was born. I was so scared to give her a bath for the first time because I was scared I would drop her. The labor itself wasn't too bad, it lasted about six hours. The only part I really remember vividly was when I was actually pushing Paige out. I would have given anything for an epidural, but that was too risky because the cult could find out."

"So who delivered the baby?"

"Ames did, but he spent practically the entire time complaining that I was physically the strongest person in the world and I should be able to handle something as simple as having a baby. I bounced his head off one of the kitchen counters and knocked him out for ten minutes. Thankfully I still had over a half hour left, so he was all right by the time I actually had to push. He took her in the other room after she was born so that he could clean her off, and that's when he took some blood from her and had it tested for signs of the virus, which started the whole damn thing. After that, Paige was completely mine."

Brin looked down at the little girl with a faint smile. "At least I'll still get to be around for someone's pregnancy. I can't wait for Jondy to have her baby, that is going to be so great. I'll have a little niece or nephew to play with."

"How's Alec with all of this? I'm sure this was unexpected, so how did he take it?"

"Actually, he completely impressed me. I've never liked the idea of him dating Jondy, but even I have to admit that he genuinely loves her. He's not always so good at showing it, but he's nuts about her. I don't think he even said anything negative about it when he found out. So far he's just being a really supportive boyfriend. Zack took it worse, to tell you the truth, but he didn't really let it show to Jondy. I got to hear all about how difficult this was going to make everything as soon as we were out of her earshot, but at least he didn't share those things with her. She's pretty nervous about it as it is, but I think she's pretty much set. Max and I are going to be all over this baby as soon as it's born, Alec will probably be a fairly decent dad, and Zack will almost certainly be picking it up whenever no one's looking. He's going to spoil that kid rotten, he just hasn't admitted it to himself yet."

Kay grinned, she knew that Brin was right. Zack loved kids, whether he cared to admit it or not. "Are you two thinking about having kids? And what about Max and Logan? You've all been together for a long time, I'm really surprised that Jondy was the first one to get pregnant."

Brin's eyes widened. "Well, I've given it a little more thought since Jondy found out she was pregnant, but I'm not sure yet. I don't think Zack's ready for a baby right now, and to be honest, I'm not either. That's a lot of responsibility. I know someday I'm really going to want kids, and that urge gets a little stronger every time I get to hold Paige, but now is definitely not the time. Of course, I shouldn't say that, because apparently as soon as those words left Alec's mouth, it turned out he had a kid on the way already. As for Max, I think she might wait a little longer. I think Manticore's experiments with breeding humans and X5s kind of freaked her out. I don't blame her, I heard a few horror stories when I was back there for that short time. I guess some of the offspring were deformed, and the rest were completely ordinary."

"But she has to take into consideration the fact that her DNA is different from the other X5s. Look at what happened with me. Ames may not exactly be ordinary, but he's not transgenic either. Nothing's wrong with Paige. My X5 DNA didn't hurt anything with her. Max's DNA may not be like mine, but maybe that difference from the other X5s will make a difference in her baby. I highly doubt she'll have any problems with having kids with Logan. If she's really that concerned, Logan can always track down a geneticist who's familiar with transgenic blood so that they can go over the different possible outcomes and the likelihood of each one. You never know, the outlook may be a lot better for her than for everyone else."

__

That makes a lot of sense. Maybe that will make Max feel better. It took a few moments for Brin to realize that she had just spent about ten minutes talking to Kay just like they had used to. Not only that, but Kay had already eased her mind about Max and Logan. How had that happened so quickly? She stared at her sister for a moment, then she quickly noticed that Kay's eyelids were starting to droop. "Do you want me to take Paige into Logan's room so you can get some sleep? She's out like a light, she won't be waking up for a while, and you could really use the rest."

Kay's fingers automatically tightened around Paige, but she knew Brin was right. She had been fighting the sleep she could feel coming on for a few minutes now, but it was time to give up. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea." When Brin leaned over to take Paige, Kay reached up and pulled her down into a brief hug. "I know I haven't done a good job of expressing it, but I'm glad to be around you again. I just can't wait to actually _see_ you again."

Brin smiled and lifted up Paige, feeling much better than she had when Max stormed out. "I can't wait, too. You at least need to see my new haircut."

Ben nodded in greeting to Brin when she came out of the room, waited for her to disappear into Logan's room, and slipped into Kay's room while closing the door behind himself. Kay had admitted that she had slept with White, but she made it sound as though it was only to keep herself from going crazy. Even more importantly, she had directly stated that if things hadn't ended quite so badly at the fight, then they might still be perfectly happy together. What was he supposed to think now? He had spent the last eight months hating her because he believed she had deserted him, but maybe it was his fault. She was right, a lot of the things he had accused her of during their last discussion weren't really true, so did that make it his fault? This also led him to believe that if he had gone after her, she would have turned to him, even if she already knew she was pregnant. Reading even further between the lines, it sounded as though she still loved him.

Kay was sure someone had come into the room, but for a while there was no noise. Suddenly, she felt a weight on the edge of her bed. It was the breathing that eventually gave him away. "Ben? Is that you?" Her stomach twisted itself into a perfect figure eight. She had absolutely no clue what to expect from him right now, and she wasn't sure she had the strength to deal with it if it was something bad.

He waited for a long time before he answered, but he eventually had to give in. "It's been a really long time."

__

Why do I have to be blind right now? Of all the times I've needed to read someone's face, now is the time I'd definitely want to. "Yeah, it sure has. How have you been?"

"That depends on your standards. For me, I've been okay. From someone else's viewpoint, I've completely lost it. How are you feeling?"

"Not bad, I'm just tired and sore at the moment. Listen, I'm too tired to ask you all the questions that I really want to ask, but I at least want to know that you took good care of Paige."

"Of course I did. It took me a little while to get things figured out, but once I knew what I was doing, everything went smoothly enough. She adjusted to me pretty quickly, and I've gotten pretty used to having her around. Since you're tired, I'm not going to ask you a lot of what I want to know, but I need to know where we stand. I heard what you said to Brin before, but that was how you thought things might go eight months ago. That's quite a chunk of time."

Kay pointed her eyes in the direction of his voice, but she really wished she could make actual eye contact right now. That would make things so much easier. "Ben, nothing has changed for me. I feel the same way right now as I did when I woke up from that fever when we first said the words. I'm not the one who felt completely betrayed, even though I don't think you were justified in feeling that way. I think the real question is: how do you feel about me? That's what is going to decide this."

He sat there for the longest time, simply staring at her face and trying to sort out his thoughts. "Don't ask me that right now. I can't give you an answer."

"Then why did you ask me? I hardly think it's fair that you get to have your mind put at ease while I'm left hanging. If you couldn't give me an answer right now, then you shouldn't have asked me right now."

"Don't you think I deserved to know? I'm not the one who's been living with someone else for the better part of the year and who had a baby with them. To me, it looked as though you had moved on. You didn't have to worry about that with me. If my feelings have changed, it's because of you. I just needed some closure."

"Closure? Well, that's an answer all on its own, isn't it? You're not planning on sticking around. Why would you? I'm sure there's a sweet little old Christian lady walking around out there somewhere that you're just dying to take out to the woods for a little game of tag. That's probably so much more inviting than the thought of being around people who you know love you."

He wanted to hit her so badly that it was only the knowledge that the others were in the next room that held him back. She was doing it again, she was becoming snappy and defensive just like last time. She had no right to make fun of his habits. He took a deep breath to calm himself, but that wasn't a much better idea. Because she looked more like a piece of butchered meat right now than anything else, he had been able to keep his mind off the pheromones in the air, but as soon as he took that deep breath, it seemed like his nostrils were filled with them. Without warning, he leaned forward and crushed his lips against her, gripping the back of her head so hard that she felt several hairs rip free. She only managed to emit a squeak of surprise, she couldn't really make much more noise with him kissing her like he was trying to suffocate her. One of his hands moved over to grip her shoulder, which was the last straw. His fingers were digging directly into a deep gash on the back of her shoulder, and her mind was now definitely clear of her heat cycle. She twisted her head sharply to the side to free her lips and gasped, "Ben, cut it out, you're hurting me!"

He pulled his head back and shook it viciously, trying to rid himself of her smell. Why had he been so stupid as to sit on the edge of her bed? Why hadn't he stood across the room like any other person would have done? Kay wiped her lips with the back of her hand, wishing some feeling would come back into them. Her mouth was practically numb. "I think you should leave. Now isn't the time for this discussion." He nodded in agreement, although he knew she couldn't see it, and stood up to head for the door. She was right, he would have to come back when they could both think clearer. Right now he just wanted to be alone again, he could already feel his migraine returning.

* * *

When Brin returned to the group in the kitchen, she realized that Max was not in there with them. Zack saw her looking around and walked over to her. "Is something wrong?"

"Have you seen Max? I thought she would have come back out here after she left Kay's room."

He gestured towards the living room. "She's pacing around in the living room right now, but none of us really wanted to ask her why. She doesn't look too happy. Did something go wrong when you were talking to Kay?"

"It didn't start out very well, but after Max left it improved a lot. I don't want her to stay mad, otherwise we'll never get her to change her mind." Zack thought about following her as she headed for the living room, but on second thought, he realized he didn't want to get in the middle of it if they started to argue. That was the last thing he needed to get caught up in.

Just as he had said, Brin found Max striding back and forth across the living room, fiddling with her fingers as she stared determinedly at the floor. "Hey, you left in a pretty big hurry. Are you okay?"

Max paused in the middle of the room, glancing up for only a moment before her eyes returned to the floor and she resumed her pacing. "I just couldn't stand to listen to that anymore. We all used to be so close, and to me it just seems that she is choosing to ignore that."

"Max, she isn't ignoring it. That's why she feels uncomfortable here, all it is is a reminder of how good things used to be. After you left, we started talking just like we used to, and it's pretty clear she misses us. She's just worried about making things worse."

"Why couldn't she have said that while she was telling us that she didn't want to stick around? I would have understood that." Max sighed and ran her fingers back through her long hair. She wasn't really sure what to think anymore. She would have to try and talk to Kay again, but right now definitely wasn't the time. She was tired, confused, and more than anything she just wanted to be alone with Logan. At least things weren't confusing with him.

Jondy walked into the living room, staring at them curiously. "Everything okay?"

Brin smiled quickly. "Yeah, everything's fine. There was just a little bit of a misunderstanding."

Zack poked his head around the corner. As long as everything was sorted out, which had happened a lot faster than he had expected it to, he really just wanted to get home and relax. He followed Jondy's path and walked over to Brin. "Hey, do you want to get out of here?"

She sighed and leaned against him, thankful for how solid he felt. "Yeah, and maybe we can pick up something to eat on the way home. If we eat much more of Logan's food, he'll go broke again."

Max and Jondy both said their goodbyes as Zack and Brin headed out the door, then Jondy sat down on the couch, watching Max stand in the middle of the room as she debated pacing again. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yeah, I am, I just think this is all so confusing. Why can't anything be easy?"

"Because we could never get that lucky. I think there's someone sitting up there pointing and laughing at us."

Max had to grin. "Well, isn't that a positive outlook? I guess things could be a lot worse. At this point, because I'm not sure what to do about Kay, I really want to get White out of here. Want to come down with me and see if he'll talk at all about Ray?"

She shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

Ames glanced up when they came down the stairs. At least it wasn't Ben again, he was really starting to get sick of seeing that guy. "And to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Well, we have Kay back, so all we have left to do is get Ray here too," Max replied, her voice approaching cheeriness just to annoy him.

"Sure, so that you can turn around and cut my throat? That's lots of incentive to start talking, isn't it?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, I'm really not that concerned about Ray. If we don't get him back, we'll just kill you and see how long his current caretaker feels like babysitting a little boy. If we don't get him, he'll probably just end up in a foster home somewhere. He'll be extremely vulnerable too, seeing as how he has that ugly thing on his arm."

Ames glared at her, but he knew she was right. He was going to die either way. Still, he didn't want to share right now. Despite what he had done, he knew his best hope for survival was Kay. He would just have to wait until he got the chance to talk to her.

* * *

Author's Note 2: Please read and review! 


	20. No Simple Love

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah. Guess which two characters are mine?

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 19: No Simple Love

For the past four days, Kay had spent nearly all of her time with Paige. Her sight had come back yesterday, but the only person who had come in to see her since then so far had been Max. A brownout had trapped Brin and Zack in their sector, otherwise she was sure they would have come by. Jondy rarely came in because the two women didn't have anything to say to each other, but Kay could tell she was extremely curious about Paige. She was sure that eventually they would end up talking about babies, but that would be the end of it. Alec had come in several times to add some comic relief, which she desperately needed, but he never stayed for long. Zack had come to talk to her several times, but the conversation was often awkward and brief. Max and Brin were her most frequent visitors, with Logan following closely behind. Max and Brin were great for a good conversation, but it was hard to compete with Logan's food. He knew she wasn't quite as much of a fan of gourmet as Max was, so he branched out slightly with his menu. He could even make a hamburger taste great. It was like having a restaurant steak on a bun.

The one person who hadn't set foot in her room was Ben. Ever since their last conversation, Max told her that he now rarely left the office. He had cleaned it up considerably during the past few days, apparently it was almost safe for a human to be in now. He only left to use the bathroom and grab some food. Nobody could even tell if he was in an outright bad mood or if he just didn't feel like talking. None of them knew how to read him, not even Brin, who considered herself to be pretty close to him.

Kay had been working on regaining her strength, which was much more difficult than she had expected it to be. Her body ached more than it ever had before, her legs wobbled when she walked, and to make matters worse, even lying on the wounds was painful, so she hardly got any sleep. Logan had gone so far as to get some sedatives off one of his doctor contacts to help her sleep. Except to head for the bathroom, she hadn't left the room since she'd been there. She wanted that to change soon. As comfortable as the guest room was, it was no fun to look at it for the entire day that she'd had her sight back.

When Paige was sound asleep, Kay snuck to the door and stuck her head out. Logan had gone to the market and Max was at work, so other than Ben, who had probably locked himself in the office again, she was alone. She was still extremely hungry even though her heat cycle had ended three days ago. Now that there was no one to stop her, she planned on raiding the refrigerator. That would be so much more fun here than in Montana. Back then, she always ended up snacking on TV dinners. She walked happily down the hallway, only feeling her legs weaken occasionally, but they got their strength back quickly each time. She was just still a little woozy. That drug that the familiars had given to her still hadn't completely faded from her system, even though common sense told her that it should have. She suspected that it was her own mind playing tricks with her more than anything else. Just as she'd thought, it looked as though Ben was still in the office. As much as she wanted to talk to him, she knew it would have to be him that approached her. He wouldn't respond too well if she tried to push him.

Her eyes lit up when she spotted the chicken in the fridge. _Funny how no one ever brought any of this back to me._ Of course, Max was fiercely protective of her favorite foods, so if Logan had made this especially for her, she wouldn't have shared. _Too bad, I'm at least taking a few bites._ Well, "a few bites" was a bit of an understatement. By the time she had finished picking at the bones, she knew she was going to have to come up with a good enough excuse for polishing off the rest of those leftovers. She snatched a bottle of water from the fridge and started back down the hall, but she heard a faint scuffling when she passed the basement door. She pressed her ear against it and listened intently. It took her a few moments to remember that Logan had commented the other day about Ames being locked down there. She had forgotten all about that. Glancing around to make sure Ben hadn't come out of the office, she opened the door and slowly made her way down the stairs.

Ames jerked his head up when he heard someone coming, fully prepared to fire off with something sarcastic, but he froze when he saw Kay. Why was she down here? She looked absolutely horrible. The cuts had all scabbed over, the bruises had turned a nasty shade of green, and she walked much more slowly and carefully than he had ever remembered. Even when she was nine months pregnant, she had raced all over the house like she was being chased. "I'm surprised to see you."

"Likewise. Actually, it's not that I'm surprised you're here, I just can't believe you're still alive."

"Same with you. I didn't think you'd ever get away from them, especially with Sate there. I heard all about that part. Sate was always a fun guy."

"Sure, if you're idea of fun is mutilation and torture, he's a blast. You know, why don't you just tell Max where Ray is? She's not a completely evil person, she'll be nicer if you cooperate."

"Maybe she would think about it, but that other X5 wouldn't, that tall blonde one with the constant scowl on his face. He'd kill me in a heartbeat."

"Yeah, Zack would be perfectly happy to separate your head from your body, but if you pretend to be a good little boy, then maybe Max will be able to hold him off long enough for you to get away."

Ben stepped out of the office for the first time that day, rubbing his eyes and walking blindly for the kitchen. With his eyes still squeezed tightly shut to avoid the bright light, he reached out one hand to steady himself against the wall, but he nearly ended up tipping over. _Isn't this where the basement door is supposed to be?_ He stopped and opened his eyes, squinting against the noon sun peeking in through one of the living room windows. Why had he let himself oversleep like that? Wait a second, more importantly, why was the door open? He didn't even have to step forward and look to find out. The voices carried up without making him have to focus.

"Sure, like she'd really take the effort of keeping him away when she wants me gone as much as he does. Come to think of it, I'm willing to bet you want me gone too."

Kay rolled her eyes. "Frankly, I don't care what you do. I'm willing to let you live as long as you never come near my daughter and me again. Of course, I'm not the one you're going to have to convince to let you go. Zack is the one who will have to be won over."

"Great, you may as well start digging a hole somewhere for me right now." He paused for a moment, then looked up at her in defeat. He hated having to ask anyone, especially her, for help. "The only way I'll stand a chance of getting out of here alive is if you talk him into it. He'll never listen to me, but he feels so guilty about what he did to you that you'd have no problem getting him to listen to you. I could be out of your hair by the weekend."

Ben really couldn't believe what he was hearing. Kay was going to help White escape after she claimed to have no feelings for him? He didn't care how indifferent she sounded down there, the fact that she was helping him get away spoke volumes more than her words. Kay, meanwhile, was grinning inwardly at how uncomfortable she knew Ames must be about having to depend on her. It wasn't going to be that easy, though. "Well, that all sounds great, but why should I go the extra mile to get you out of here? I said I wouldn't care about just letting you go, I never said I was going to fight for you. If you want me to help you, I'm going to need something first."

"Like what?"

She kneeled down in front of him with one arm draped across the opposite knee. "Well, for starters, I wouldn't mind getting some financial help. You were stocking up money like crazy in Montana, so don't try to worm your way out of that. I want most of what you have saved. Second, I want the names of everyone in the Conclave. Wouldn't that be a hard blow to your people if Eyes Only announced the names of the most influential familiars out there? Finally, I want you to stay as far away from me as humanly possible. Another continent is preferable. If I even see a sign of you, I'm not going to run, I'm going to come after you with everything I have, and I'm sure you've figured out by now that that's not something you should take lightly. Do you understand?"

He glared at her, but he didn't have much of a choice. He nodded firmly, hating that his life was basically in her hands. "You know, you could just untie me right now and we wouldn't even have to deal with Zack."

"Sure, but I'm not in top form right now. If I let you loose now, you'd be able to overpower me easily, and then where would I be? Dead, or at the very least right back where I started; missing my daughter and without a clue where to look. No, I think I'll leave you tied up for now. But this is a half and half thing. I want the number to your bank account right now, then the names of the Conclave just before I let you go. Got that?"

"Fine, but I want you to work fast on getting me out of here. Ray's been without me long enough."

"He can wait a little longer. Besides, at least he's not with transgenics this time. I don't even think there were any transgenics in Kalispell, unless whoever you left him with managed to fool you."

"How many transgenics do you know who are in their sixties?" he snapped irritably, wishing she would just go away. She had already made him agree with her plan, what else did she want from him?

Actually, she had just gotten what she wanted. "Just give me the number and I'll be on my merry way," she replied in a voice just as annoyed as his.

Ben wasn't quite sure what to think as he listened to White rattle the number off. She was getting something out of it, which took credit away from the idea that she was helping him because she cared, but the fact remained that she was going to let him get away when he was one of the most vicious threats against her. He quickly backed down the hall as Kay ascended the stairs. Just as he was about to pull his head through the doorway into the office, he noticed the broad, self-satisfied grin on her face. What had made her so happy? She closed the door behind her, but instead of going back to her room, she walked into the living room. He stepped back out into the hall and listened intently as she sat down in front of Logan's computer. The moment he heard the keystrokes, he was completely confused. What was this about?

It was nearly fifteen minutes before Kay shut down the computer again. Expecting her to come around the corner at any second, Ben ducked back into the office, but she surprised him yet again. The next thing he heard was the beep of the phone as she turned it on. The next time he heard her speak, it sounded as though she was crying.

"Hi, this is Ray's stepmother… I'm so sorry to bother you like this, but Ray's father has been in a horrible accident. He's been missing for the longest time, but I didn't want to call you because I didn't want you to actually let anything slip to Ray until I knew something for sure. I just found out that he was involved in a huge pileup in Seattle; he was only just identified yesterday… No, he didn't make it. The doctors said that it was instantaneous, so thankfully he didn't suffer at all… Yeah, that's why I was calling. I'm completely tied up in all the legal junk here and I don't have the time to come back and get Ray, so I was hoping you could send him on a bus. I'll reimburse you for the bus ticket, I promise. I just think it's really important that Ray be here… Thank you, this has really been such a difficult time… Yes, tomorrow would be great. Are you sure you can get a ticket that soon? … Well, that's okay, I can pay a little extra as long as Ray gets here in time for his father's funeral. Could you do just one more thing for me? I'd really appreciate it if you let me break the news to Ray, so please don't mention anything to him. Just let him know that he's coming to stay with Kay, that's what he knows me by… Thank you so much, you've been so much more generous than we deserve… Yes, thank you. Goodbye."

When Kay finally turned the corner, she couldn't have looked happier, but that was nothing compared to how she felt. When Ray showed up tomorrow, the others could kill Ames without delay. _Actually, I should probably tell them beforehand so they can get rid of Ames before Ray gets here. It's best if they don't see each other._ Actually, she knew the last part wasn't necessarily true. She just knew that if she let Ames and Ray see each other, she would begin to feel guilty. It would be so hard for Ray to be without his father again after getting to live with him for nearly a year. This time, though, it would be permanent.

* * *

Brin groaned as she approached Logan's sector. Ever since Zack blew the college up, getting in and out of this sector was notoriously difficult, even for a messenger. Zack, who was sitting right next to her on his bike, felt the same way she did. He knew it was a good thing that he had blown the place up, but it was causing huge problems with deliveries, and somehow he and Brin had ended up with every delivery in this direction. At least they could travel together and keep each other entertained while they waited in the ludicrously long lines.

As they sat and waited in yet another line, a young Asian woman started crossing through the traffic. Everyone moved aside, and as she passed near Brin, she slowed down and rubbed her belly tenderly. She had to be at least seven months pregnant, and she had the glow that every expecting mother seemed to have. She smiled briefly at Brin and Zack when she noticed them watching, and then continued on her trek across the street. Brin felt like she'd been hit in the face with an omen, especially after her conversation with Kay a few days ago.

"Why do you look so serious all of a sudden?" Zack asked, jerking her out of her thoughtful trance. She smiled and blushed slightly.

"Sorry, seeing that girl just got me thinking. Kay has a baby and Jondy's expecting right now. That's half of us. How long do you think it will be before we join them?"

Zack's stomach dropped at least a foot at those words. "You haven't missed a heat cycle, have you?"

She laughed and shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I wasn't saying that I was pregnant, I was just wondering if we were ever going to get to that point. I've always wanted kids. What about you?"

Even though he was relieved that she wasn't pregnant at the moment, he still didn't really like the direction this conversation was going. "Well, I don't really mind kids, but I don't know if I'd want one of my own. Not for several years anyway."

"Several years? That would make you practically sixty when your kid graduates from high school! Come off it, you know you like kids, and you would probably be thrilled to have one of your own. You don't ever wonder what it would be like to have a little boy or girl running around the apartment calling you 'Daddy'? I think you would spoil a kid rotten."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, I like kids, but I don't think I would spoil one. When have I ever spoiled anyone?"

"True, but that's because you've never had anyone to spoil. Other than Paige, who I know you care a lot about, the only young child that I have gotten the chance to see you interact with as a grown man is Ray, and you were incredible with him. You weren't the closest to him, but you also weren't living in the same house as he was. Either way, though, you enjoyed spending time with that kid more than you would ever want to admit. Just think about how you feel every time you're around a little kid. I've made a few observations, but I guess you know more about what's going on in your own head than I do."

He absolutely hated admitting that she was right. "Yeah yeah, so I like kids a _lot_. Does that mean I have to become a father right away?"

She had to smile, but she made sure to turn away from him so he wouldn't see it. She knew he was only getting defensive in the hopes that it would make her lose interest in the topic and drop it, but he should have known better. When her face was straight again, she turned back to him. "No, that's not what it means, I'm just wondering what you would think about having them _someday._ If you really want to have kids when you're an old man, then fine, I can deal with that. I just want to know if you would ever want kids of your own."

"This isn't because of Jondy and Kay, is it? I know that got you thinking about it in the first place, but are you getting some sort of maternal need from seeing them?" He looked so uncomfortable that Brin had to laugh out loud, even though she knew he absolutely detested being laughed at.

"Maternal need? Zack, just answer the question! My God, it's like pulling teeth!" _I'd better not use that expression around Ben._

He threw up his hands in defeat. "Okay, yes, I want kids! And sure, I wouldn't mind having them fairly soon. Not right this minute, but maybe in a year or two."

"And I'm assuming that you already have the mother chosen?" she taunted, knowing that it would just irritate him.

He shot her a sharp look. "That's a ridiculous question, unless you were hoping I would choose someone else. If I wanted to, I could have a herd of my own kids. Who says I have to choose one mother?"

She rolled her eyes. "Now you're just being an asshole. JamPony messenger!" she called out, raising her badge as Zack did the same. As they walked through the checkpoint with relief, she added, "I didn't mean to put any pressure on you, I was just asking because that girl walked in front of us and made me think of it. Let's not worry about this for a while yet, okay?"

He sighed and jumped back onto his bike. "Fine with me."

* * *

Kay had been dozing lightly after her victory over Ames for nearly an hour when she became aware that she wasn't alone in her room. Unlike the last time she'd felt that sensation, however, now she could look around and see who it was. When she lifted her head from the pillow, she saw Ben sitting in the chair on the opposite side of the room. That was where he had been last time too, if she remembered correctly. He was staring quietly at Paige, who had been given a rather snug little bed on the floor made up of any stray pillows and blankets. She seemed to find it suitable enough.

It was a while before Ben noticed that Kay had woken up and was watching him. They stared at each other for a moment, then he said, "How did you figure out where Ray was?"

She was surprised, she'd had no idea that he overheard her telephone conversation. "Does this mean you overheard my discussion with Ames as well?" When he nodded, she continued, "Well, if you heard the part where he commented that the person who was taking care of Ray was in their sixties, that nearly secured it for me. He probably doesn't even remember telling me, it was quite a few months ago. He was telling me about this huge strike that a lot of the younger guys at the feed mill were planning, and an older woman was the one who managed to convince them not to do it. He described her as a very nice woman, and he seemed to be fonder of her than he is of most ordinary people. I know he could have easily sent Ray to someone else, but she was the only lead I had, and even if she wasn't the right one, I at least had the age thing to go off of. I just happened to get lucky. I got her number off the Internet, plus I hacked into Ames's bank in Kalispell and transferred his money to an account that had been set up for me during one of my last missions at Manticore when I had to stay in Tacoma for several months. I'm just lucky they never shut it down."

"So now that Ray is on his way and you have the money you need, you're going to let Zack kill him?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much the plan."

"What about the names of the Conclave? Were you really interested in that at all?"

She shrugged. "Maybe a little bit, but there are other ways of finding out who they are. Ames isn't our only venue. He thinks that might be incredibly important to me, but I'm just more concerned with protecting Paige and making sure I don't get separated from her ever again." They were silent for a long time, then Kay had to voice the question that had bugged her all along. Now that she was stronger, she felt like she could handle a heavy argument with him, which was what she was sure this would end up being. "So, why did you take Paige in the first place? I don't even understand what you were doing in Montana."

He eyed her warily. He wasn't quite sure how she was going to take this. "The fact that I was in Montana was pure coincidence. I had no idea you were there, and I certainly didn't know who Paige was. I didn't even know why the cult was after her. I came across a female familiar, the black-haired woman who had Paige at first, and I thought it would be interesting to try out my 'hobby,' as you always liked to call it, on one of them. I followed her to a meeting with someone who told her that they were going to get a baby and kill White, but it was very clear that the baby was the most important thing. I followed her to your house, and when she found Paige and started running with her, I decided to get to her before anyone else. You saw how many familiars were in the woods that day. I would have just killed them all then, but Max showed up. That's when I figured that if I could get the baby and use her as bait, I could lure those familiars somewhere where I could hunt them. Then I ended up coming to Seattle and getting trapped in the blackout, so my plans got put on hold until you showed up and everything came out."

Kay couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her eyes grew wider in indignation with every word she spoke. "So you're telling me that you took my daughter and endangered her life merely for your own entertainment? What made you think you had the right to do that? It didn't even necessarily have to be my daughter; you have no right to take any child at all from their home to use them as a little pawn in one of your plans. That's one of the most disgusting things I've ever heard. I knew you had some problems, Ben; believe me, I knew from experience, but this was downright sick. I don't think there's anything out there that can help you, you're completely messed up. What the hell was Manticore thinking when they put you together? You couldn't have turned out any worse if they had tried!"

Every muscle in Ben's body tensed in barely controlled rage, but he knew why she was acting this way. He had involved her daughter in what he had realized later was a ridiculous, spur-of-the-moment scheme that really put her young life in danger, no matter how good of a job he thought he was doing in protecting her. White had still managed to find him, hadn't he? No, he really couldn't blame her for being angry, but that didn't mean he had to like being insulted like this. "I'm not the only one who has pulled something like this, Kay. If I remember correctly, you used several hundred transgenics as pawns when you made them escape from Terminal City and go to the big fight. Everyone was a pawn to you, no matter how important they had once been to you. Even Joshua, who I know you cared about, was someone that you manipulated into doing what you wanted."

"Excuse me? I didn't manipulate Joshua into anything. You weren't there, you didn't see what was happening. I know Chris told you as much as he could, but he could never have fully understood everything that was going on. He wasn't a transgenic, he didn't stand a chance of understanding. I'm sick and tired of being accused for things I didn't do, and for having what I actually did exaggerated. It's completely unfair. Pretty much everyone else has decided to forgive me, even if they haven't said the words out loud, but you can't seem to be able to. Why not? I've been perfectly honest with you. I even admitted to still loving you, but you can't even soften up. The person I used to know can't be completely gone, because I know you cared a lot about Paige, but you can't seem to show that person to me. Do you want me to just flat out say 'I love you'? Fine! It's embarrassing to have to yell the words at you like this, but if it gets through to you, then it will be worth it. I love you! What else do you want?"

He stood up so quickly that he knocked his chair over. "I want this all to be over! You know what, you can stay here. Feel free to stay here as long as you like, because I'm leaving. I thought I could deal with this, I actually thought that I wanted to, but I just can't. I've never been cut out for this kind of thing, and I don't want to put up with it anymore. I'm glad you're all right, and I'm extremely happy that you're back with your daughter again, but I can't stay. You can tell the others for me, but I'm out of here."

Kay could only stare after him as he strode hurriedly out of the room. She didn't know how she felt as she watched him go, especially considering the fact that she wasn't in good enough condition to go running after him. She had said the words to him, which was an extremely difficult thing for her in the first place, but to have him just walk out right after she said them was worse than if he had slapped her in the face. She loved him, all those deep wells of emotion had been uncovered again as she said the words, and now he was just going to leave? After being separated from someone she loved so much in a completely different way, she hated the thought of being separated from him. Even as they argued, she felt so much joy at simply having him in the room, even though she tried to pass it off as discomfort. Even if they never became as close as they used to be, she would be perfectly happy with him just being able to tolerate her. If they could just talk occasionally, it would make everything so much better. Still, she knew that wouldn't be enough. She wanted to be held, to just be able to stand there in his arms with her head resting on his shoulder and forget about everything that was troubling her. That had been her favorite thing when they were together. She simply loved hugging him. Everything else was great too, but just that simple hug was enough to make her worries go away.

When the front door slammed and she saw him walking down the sidewalk from her window, she leaned down and lifted Paige out of her bed. She had thought that getting Paige back would settle everything, but now she was even more confused than before. What was she going to do now?


	21. Saints and Angels

Disclaimer: Woohoo, my last disclaimer here! I own Kay and Paige, nobody else, no matter how soft of a spot I hold in my heart for them. :P

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Black Ice

By Be Boring

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Chapter 20: Saints and Angels

Kay smiled and gave a slight wave as Logan walked out the door to have lunch with Matt Sung. When she heard the telltale _click_ of his departure, she rubbed her eyes wearily with her thumb and forefinger. As her hand fell back to her side and her eyes opened again, she looked down the hallway at the closed office door. She didn't know why she had done it. Really, what was the point? After Ben had left the day before, she went down the hall and shut the door, making it look as though he was still there. No one ever went in there to bother him, so they never knew the difference. She really didn't know what had driven her to do something so small, but what she did know was that it made her feel better whenever she saw that it was closed. It seemed like he could come walking out of that office at any moment. It almost seemed to erase the fact that he had walked out on her. _Why is this any different from last time? Technically, he walked out on me at the fight, so why does this seem to hurt so much more?_ That was ridiculous. She knew why it was so much more painful this time; last time she was the one who pushed him away and eventually convinced him to leave, but this time she opened up and tried to be close to him again, and this time he was the one who left without any encouragement on her part.

Her mind was so jumbled that she hadn't said a thing to anyone else about anything; not about Ben leaving, discovering where Ray was, or the fact that Ames was now perfectly expendable. Ames just didn't seem so important anymore. In fact, she strongly suspected that if she let him go now, he would take Ray and run. What could he do now? The High Priest was gone and it would be extremely difficult for the cult to elect a new leader if they couldn't convene somewhere. Too many people knew about them by now, they couldn't possibly have a gathering without getting caught. Ames wouldn't have anyone to allow him back into the cult, so what would the point be of coming after her and Paige? He wasn't a stupid man, he would figure out that it was pointless to use her or his daughter as a bargaining chip again. The only reason she could see him showing up in her life again was if he decided that he wanted to be a part of his daughter's life. She knew he wanted to be, but she simply couldn't take that. They couldn't stand each other, and what would that be like for Paige? No, she was better off without him.

She glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was nearly noon, and she knew that's when Ray's bus would be arriving. Almost without her permission, her feet started walking determinedly towards the basement door. _Kay, don't do this. You've made some really crappy decisions in your life, and this is only going to get added onto that very long list. Let Zack deal with him._ The problem with that was that she knew Zack would kill Ames, and she wasn't quite sure she wanted that anymore. Sure, it had seemed like a great idea yesterday, but was it such a good thing for Ray? Stepping outside of her own feelings, she was perfectly aware that Ames was a wonderful father, if nothing else. And even though he put on such an emotionless facade, she knew he loved his son. As an X5 with more physical power than most people could even imagine, it was easy to fall into the role of playing God with people's lives. Killing was more than an instinct, it was a part of everyday life. She could throw away a human life as easily as an old apple core. Was that really fair? Just because she didn't particularly want Ames in her life, did that really mean that she had the right to kill him just to get him out of her way? That was what she was used to, but with Ray in the back of her mind, her instincts were being shoved aside. Common sense told her that Ames would stay away this time. He had too much to lose now, and hardly anything to gain no matter what he did. She knew he would realize that.

Ames stiffened when Kay eased her way down the stairs. A powerful sense of foreboding had struck him yesterday when no one came downstairs after their discussion. At the first mention of a deal, 452 should have been down here in a flash, but everyone had left him alone last night. At the very least he would have expected Zack to come down to hear what he had to say, even if he just took it as an opportunity to kick him around a little more. The fact that nobody had visited him immediately led him to think that Kay hadn't mentioned anything, and if she hadn't mentioned anything, then maybe she had other plans for him.

If her mind wasn't so preoccupied, Kay would have at least smiled at the tension in Ames's body, even though he wasn't letting it show in his face. She came to a stop mere inches from him, stared down into his cautious but curious eyes, and walked around to kneel down behind him. She winced at the flash of pain that shot through her, but she gritted her teeth and started to undo his binds anyway. Zack sure knew how to handle chains. It took her nearly ten minutes of awkward silence to finally get the hard, cold knots undone. Ames slowly eased himself to his feet, trembling with the effort of pushing his exhausted, defeated body into a standing position after so much time spent sitting down. He only looked briefly in Kay's direction. When she merely stared back with her arms crossed, he decided he wasn't going to waste any time. No one else was here, he could hear that much, which meant that he didn't have time to spare. He needed to be gone before Zack returned.

Kay watched him wearily climb the stairs, and was almost tempted to help him when he had to pause and grip the banister for support, but thought better of it. She wasn't in such good shape herself, she couldn't exactly be a crutch for him. As soon as he had finally reached the main floor, she followed him and cut him off just before he reached the front door. "Ray is arriving at the bus station just outside of town at noon. I suggest you hurry if you're going to get there in time."

He would have sneered if he didn't already know how much it would hurt his face. "And just how do you expect me to do that? It's not like I can call a cab, I don't have any cash on me at the moment."

She peered out the window. "That old Dodge Neon down the street has its keys in it, sitting just on top of the driver's mirror. I can't give you any guarantees about how much gas is in it, but it's your best shot. I think you already know what the stipulations are on this little situation, am I right?"

"Don't worry, you're not going to see me again," he replied quietly, wishing he could take the words and choke her with them. Paige was his daughter just as much as Kay's. He had every right to be in her life. Sure, he would leave now, maybe he would stay away for a few years, but he couldn't stay away from one of his children forever. He needed to see her grow up into a young woman, just like he needed to be with his son.

Kay knew perfectly well what was running through his mind. "Wait here," she ordered sharply, stepping around him to head back to the guest room. She knew this wasn't a good idea, but if he was going to be leaving, he may as well get to see Paige one more time. To her surprise, Paige was already awake when she reached the room, laying on her back and staring up at the ceiling as though fascinated with the bumps in the paint. She made no noise as Kay lifted her and carried her back out to where Ames was waiting, honestly not expecting what Kay was bringing him. His eyes widened when he saw Paige lying comfortably in her mother's arms, staring at everything around her with large, eager eyes. He was even more surprised when Kay held the little girl out for him. He glanced at her tentatively, then gently took his daughter from her.

"She's grown so much," he commented softly, studying everything he could in the short time he had with her; her delicate little nostrils flaring with each breath, one tiny hand resting against the chest of his shirt, the other dangling off the edge of his arm but clutching blindly for something that wasn't there, and both perfect little feet sticking straight out past his hand, all ten toes curling and uncurling for a reason completely unknown to him. She blinked up at his face, looking just as amazed with him as he was with her. He brushed his fingers against the light brown fluff on her head, smiling at the surprising thickness of it. She reminded him so strongly of Ray as a baby. Of course, she looked a lot more like Kay than him, but he could pick out his own features occasionally.

The longer Ames held Paige, the more nervous Kay became. She just wanted him to leave, take Ray, and stay as far away from her as he could. Finally, she lost her patience and gently reached out to take Paige back. She felt him hesitate for a moment, but he then nodded in resignation and let her remove the baby from his arms. With his frustration at having to be separated from another child, Ames couldn't bring himself to say anything, but he satisfied himself with the thought that he would come back for her someday.

Relief spread through Kay at lightning speed as soon as he pulled away from the side of the road and disappeared from her sight. The others wouldn't be particularly happy with her, but she would deal with that later. She sat down on the couch, letting Paige squeeze and pull at her fingers as she gazed thoughtfully out the window. Where could Ben possibly be right now? He had been all over the country on his own, he knew it probably even better than Zack did, so he had more than his fair share of hiding places. _He probably aimed to get as far from me as humanly possible,_ she thought miserably. The worst part was that he probably wouldn't come back. He would first try to lay low and sort out his feelings, and without her there he would most likely decide that he was better off alone and he would continue with his killing spree. Suddenly, she pulled her hand from Paige's grasp, abruptly stood up, and headed for the door. It was a ridiculous thought, and it might end up being an extremely disappointing waste of time, but it was all she had, and her gut was telling her to go with it. If she was wrong, she'd come back and try to pick her life back up. But if she was right, maybe she could get things to turn around.

* * *

"Alec, don't even think about it," Jondy snapped, rolling her eyes and smacking Alec on the arm. He stepped back from the window of the house they were delivering a package to and blinked at her innocently. 

"What?" Even as he struggled to remain as sweet and pure-looking as possible, he couldn't stop his eyes from wandering back to the window longingly.

Jondy sighed and tipped her head in the direction of the house right next to them. "_That._ I know perfectly well what you were thinking."

"You mean about how much I would love to give my little mother-to-be a wonderful present, such as a nice, fairly new-looking home theater system complete with a big screen TV, combination VHS and DVD player, and what looks like an incredible surround-sound system?"

"No, I mean about how you were going to sell that TV, VHS and DVD player, and surround-sound system so that you could buy yourself something that I'm sure would be completely unnecessary."

At the stern look in her eyes, he sighed in defeat and threw his hands up helplessly. "You know, you used to be fun."

"Yeah, well, you knocked me up, big boy. Deal with it." She grinned to show that she was kidding and knocked on the door. Bored without the prospect of something good to steal, Alec drifted away from the door and back to the street next to his bike, gazing around blankly as he waited for Jondy to get the signature. Just as he turned around with the intention of perhaps looking in a neighbor's window to see what they had to pawn off, three bikes barreled past him, forcing him to jump back to avoid a collision. "Assholes!" he shouted at Max's, Brin's, and Zack's fading backs.

Max grinned and glanced back at Brin, whose mischievous eyes matched her own. Even Zack looked mildly amused in his own way. "I'd swear I'm dealing with nine-year-olds again," Zack commented under his breath, but not quite low enough for the two women to miss.

"At least we know how to have fun," Brin shot back. "You never loosen up. You don't tease anybody or crack any jokes. You'd think with all the dirt you must have on us, you'd at least try to embarrass us for fun. You just aren't capable of it. You're way too stiff."

So, she thinks I can't embarrass her? "Funny how that's such a bad thing now. It didn't seem to bother you last night."

Max screeched to a stop so fast on her bike that she nearly sent herself tumbling headfirst over the front of it. Brin had luckily managed to come to a cleaner stop, but she was staring at Zack in unabashed horror. If anything, he looked rather pleased with himself. Max blinked furiously a few times, trying to get rid of any mental images that Zack had conjured, then finally managed to choke out, "I don't care when you guys choose to have a lover's spat, but please don't say anything around me to insinuate that you ever do more than hold hands. My stomach just can't take it."

Brin finally loosened up enough to laugh at her sister's expression. "Hey, you've gotta admit that was a pretty good comeback, no matter how _embarrassing_." She practically growled the last word, glaring at Zack with the hardest look she could muster.

He was about to say something else, but a beat-up old gray sedan went rattling past them with speed that he couldn't imagine it was made for. His eyes narrowed for a moment, then widened again. "Was that Kay?" The women turned their heads, but it was too late, the car was too far away. He shook his head, almost as though trying to convince himself otherwise. "No, it couldn't have been. She doesn't have a reason to leave the house."

Brin opened her mouth to comment, but thought better of it. The truth was that she had gone in to check on Ben last night, only to find the office completely empty. All his things were gone; if it weren't for the fact that the room was sparkling clean as opposed to the tragic mess it used to be, no one would have been able to tell that anyone had been there at all. She didn't know what had happened, and she didn't think it was a good idea to ask Kay about it. He must have left when the others were gone. That meant Kay must have known he took off. _Does this mean she's going after him, or is she just leaving us again on her own?_

* * *

As the afternoon sun peered for the first time through the window and connected with his closed eyelids, Ben finally snapped out of the heavy sleep that had threatened to waste the day away. He almost couldn't believe it when he looked at the dusty, incredibly-still-ticking clock on the opposite wall. His stress lately had been triggering more migraines, which seemed to wear him out quickly, which meant that he slept nearly twice as much as he usually did. 

He reached up and firmly gripped the edge of the table next to him to help pull him to his feet. He could understand why he hadn't gone to the bed, he had no interest in going near that bed ever again, but even in his exhausted daze last night he should have had the sense to head for the couch. Of course, he hadn't been thinking clearly at all. Yesterday, for the first time ever in his short life, he had gotten completely lost. He had driven in circles for hours, unsure of where he wanted to go, and as his mind slowly mulled everything over and dwelled on all that had been said, a migraine had practically attacked him. As the pain nearly took over all of his senses, he saw a familiar sign come out of nowhere, and instinctively he headed in a direction he knew so well. It was almost against his will. Something beyond his ordinary mind had been at work last night, bringing him here when it was the last place he should be. He needed to avoid more stress, not open the door and invite it in. When he had burst through the door last night, he didn't look around for a soft place to land, he simply collapsed on the most open piece of floor he could find.

Ben rubbed his eyes groggily as he slowly wandered towards the door he had accidentally left open the night before. He paused as he stared outside; he couldn't believe he had forgotten just how beautiful this place was. He stepped out onto the small front porch, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to enjoy the clean air that his lungs didn't normally have the pleasure of experiencing. Just as he exhaled, he heard the distinct sound of tires on gravel. _You're just imagining things. It's pretty clear by the way this place looks that no one has been here for months, so why would anyone bother showing up now?_ He determinedly kept his eyes squeezed shut to block out the noise, but suddenly he heard the very obvious sound of a car door slamming, forcing him to throw out the possibility that it was all in his head. He couldn't have possibly imagined that.

"I can't believe you're actually here."

His eyes finally popped open to see Kay standing around fifty feet away, next to a gray car that he couldn't believe had actually managed to get her here. Just through the windshield he could see Paige, wrapped comfortably in a large blanket to keep her from wobbling in the seat too much. He was so taken aback by their appearance that he didn't bother to hold back his surprise. "How did you know to look for me here?"

Kay glanced around, a fleeting rush of joy shooting through her at the sight of her old home. Sure, the familiars had burned a lot of the place down, but her house was still pretty well intact, and a lot of the pastureland had already grown green again. She could even see some of the horses off in the distance, grazing peacefully or sunbathing contentedly on their sides. "I don't really know. It was the only place I could think of, and I hoped that with how fast you rushed out yesterday that maybe you decided to come here. It's not like you had time to make any plans." She was silent for a moment as she took in the deserted, half-burned down houses around her. "It doesn't look like anyone has been here for a long time."

Ben's eyes flicked back to the car, then he sighed and turned back towards the door. "You may as well bring her inside. I get the feeling you don't plan on leaving right away."

As he disappeared back into the house, Kay felt a rush of relief that he hadn't turned cold yet. He'd had a night to think over what she had said yesterday and maybe to sort out the mess in his own mind. She didn't know if that was enough time for him or not, but she hoped that it was enough to push him in the right direction. She took her time getting Paige out of the car, giving him a few minutes to accept the fact that she was here right now, whether he wanted her to be or not. When she stepped into her house for the first time in almost exactly a year, it took her a moment to collect her thoughts. Many things were charred from the fire, but for some reason her house wasn't nearly as bad as the others. It still strongly resembled the home it used to be. Even the table that Ben was currently sitting on was still strong enough to hold up his weight.

Ben watched her take in the changes to the home that they used to share with an unanticipated attack of nostalgia. It felt strange to be back here with her after so long, and somehow it made their problems seem so small. Even as he stared at her, it seemed so much more obvious to him than ever before that she hadn't changed as much as he had tried to convince himself. Every little facial expression was the same, the slight, almost unnoticeable sound of her breath catching in her throat when she was surprised was just as he remembered it, and the softness that was coming over her face now that she was back in a place where it was evident she felt comfortable made him recall her expression every morning when they first woke up. That was when he had been the happiest, and it was written all over her face that she felt the same way.

Kay could feel his eyes on her, but she didn't want to speak just yet. She just wanted to feel the memories that seemed to float in the air around her. Everywhere she looked, something flashed before her eyes almost as if she was watching a poorly edited movie. She could see Brin in the kitchen, laughing as Zack attempted to help her and somehow managed to completely screw it up. Ray was sitting at the table, eating an omelet and chatting happily with everyone who happened to come within earshot. When she looked into the living room, Ray disappeared from the corner of her eye and instead she saw Wendy sitting on the couch with a bowl of ice cream, telling her about one of her stories from her supposedly happy married life. Even Lydecker wandered through the living room, glancing furtively over his shoulder to where Ben and Zack were shooting him dark looks. Everything was thrown together in a confusing jumble, but a wave of sadness struck her at the realization that those days were gone. Although at the time she had thought that her life was some sort of freak circus, this place had been where she had her happiest memories. Closing her eyes briefly to shut out the memories before they completely consumed her, she tried to turn her attention back to Ben. As much as she wished she could go back to those old times, she had to deal with the problems before her right now. She had to at least make an attempt to get her life back on track. "What were you planning to do after you left here?"

He stared down at his feet, dangling just a few inches from the floor. Anything just to keep from looking at her right now. "I haven't decided on anything yet. Are you going to go back to Seattle, or are you going to run away again?"

She sighed and settled Paige onto the couch. It didn't sound like he felt much like working things out. "I'm going back to Seattle. I have friends again, I'm not going to leave them. What about you? Are you willing to leave your family?"

"Are you trying to make me feel guilty? It's better if I leave, even you must see that."

"Don't you think that's exactly what was going through my mind when I found out I was pregnant? I was wrong, I can admit that, and you need to do it too. You leaving is no different from me leaving. It's going to hurt them just as much."

He crossed his arms and finally looked up at her. "You didn't come here for the sake of the others. You came here to talk about us. Just say what you think you have to say and get it over with."

She crossed her arms as well and moved forward to stand right in front of him. "You know what? You heard what I had to say yesterday. I was as honest as I could possibly be, so there's really not much more I can add. No, I want to hear what _you_ have to say. I don't care if I won't like it, I think you owe me at least that much."

He didn't really enjoy being put on the spot like that. "Exactly what do you need to know that I haven't made clear already?"

"Do you love me? Somehow through all your accusations and complaints, you never managed to make that perfectly clear."

He rolled his eyes in frustration. "Of course I love you. Feelings don't disappear that quickly, and I guess without any closure I didn't bother to throw them out. But that's just not enough, not with you. The fact is that we don't know each other at all. We thought we did, but like you said at the fight, we more or less became new people while we were here, rather than showing who we really were. The moment we were away from each other our real personalities came out, and it turns out that not many people like who we really are. Max killed me when I was really being myself, and you got yourself into one hell of a mess. We can't just go back to being happy. Too much has happened. Did you really expect things to just go back to normal by talking things out with me?"

"Of course not. I didn't even expect anything romantic again, at least not at first. I'm just asking for some level of tolerance from you. I'm also asking you not to leave. Everyone accused me of running away, which is true, that's what I did, but why is it okay for you to do it and not me? Because you have extra interests that you can't enjoy when you're around them? That's hardly an excuse. You're running away to do something that even you know is wrong." When he opened his mouth to snap something back, she held up a hand quickly to stop him. "Look, I'm not going to even try to get into your special interests. Like you said before, I'm here to talk about us. We've both said the words that matter, now we've got to decide what to do about it. Do you really want to leave? Really?"

He shrugged, already feeling the first hints of another migraine approaching. "Maybe not, but you know it will be easier if I go."

"Easier, maybe, but not better. Ignoring me, you have so much waiting for you in Seattle. You're really good friends with Brin, I know Max wants to get to know you a lot better, Zack will always be there for you, whether you want him to be or not, you always used to be close with Jondy, so maybe you can get to be good friends with her again and be with her through her pregnancy, and Paige will be there. I know you connected with her, and it would be hard on her if you left. I'm not asking you to make any definite decisions about the future, just come back to Seattle with me. You can figure out everything else as you go along. If you still decide you want to leave in a few months, then by all means, leave. Just don't take off now when you haven't thought anything out."

Ben stood up and walked to the window, staring out at the pasture to clear his head. "What do you want to happen in the future?" he asked quietly. "If you could have your ideal life, where would we be ten years from now?"

Kay nervously walked up next to him, keeping just enough distance to not seem intrusive. "In my ideal life? We'd be together raising Paige, maybe with a baby or two of our own. I'd love to rebuild this place and get it going again. It wouldn't be like it used to be, but I think it would be happy. We'd visit everyone in Seattle as much as we possibly could, we'd find Buddy and Mary and bring them back here, and maybe we'd even convince Zack and Brin to move back. I know Brin's much more suited to country life. I don't want to use the words 'happily ever after,' but that's what I would hope for. What about you? What's your ideal future?"

To her surprise, he half-smiled and glanced down at her. "I don't know, but everything you just said sounded pretty good. I just don't see how we can be together again. We can't pick up where we left off."

"Then we'll start over. Maybe we'll just be friends for a while and really get to know each other this time. I don't think you ever really told me about your childhood after you got out of Manticore, and you never had much interest in hearing what I did for Manticore after you left. Maybe we should talk about all that to really get everything out in the open. We'll find out everything we need or want to know about each other. If in the end we decide that it's better if we stay separate, then so be it. I'll just be happy knowing that we gave it a shot. What do you think about that?"

He gazed out of the window, wondering if anything she had just said could come true. "Do you really believe any of this could work?"

She shrugged, almost positive that he wasn't interested in her idea. "I don't know. That's part of the fun, isn't it?"

He sighed and stepped back from the window, wandering over to stand above Paige. "I don't know about fun, but it might be interesting. Let's just get one thing straight, though. If in a couple months things really don't seem to be getting better, I don't think I'll be able to stick around. Can you handle that?"

Their eyes connected for the briefest moment, then she took his original place by the window and stared out at the pasture. "If I have to, then I'll deal with it. You know me, I usually get back on my feet pretty quickly. Besides, I have Paige now. At least if you go, I'll still have someone really special in my life. It just won't be the same."

Ben looked up at the clock on the wall, unable to believe what he was about to say. "You know, if we don't get going soon, we won't make it in time for dinner."

Her eyes widened and she turned to face him. "Does this mean…?"

He reached down and lifted Paige into his arms. "Let's take my car, since I don't think the one you brought up here will survive the return trip." When all she could do was continue to stare at him, unsure if she was just imagining everything he was saying or not, he truly smiled for the first time at her in almost a year. "You're never going to get to the car at that pace."

Almost in a daze, Kay followed him out to the car and took Paige from him so she could sit in the passenger side with her. She really wanted everything to work out, even more than she would ever admit to herself, but she was curious about what he was thinking. She remained silent, however. At least he was open to the idea of working things out, which was so much more than she had expected. She had thought this would be a wasted trip. Now it looked like things might get better.

Ben glanced over at her every now and then, thinking almost the exact same things she was. She seemed so much like how he remembered her right now, and somehow it just seemed to be more possible than he would have thought to get things back on track. He had no intention of hurrying things along, he wanted to see what happened as they went along, but he was almost looking forward to the future. He had no idea what was going to happen, and like Kay had said, that was part of the fun.

* * *

Logan stared at the empty guest room, feeling the ever-rising sting of tension in his stomach at the thought that soon Max would be home from work and he would have to tell her that while he was with Matt, Kay had taken off. He couldn't believe she had left, especially since she had made up with Brin and Max. The only possible positive piece of information he had was that Ben was also gone. He had immediately gone to the office to see if he knew where Kay had gone, but he didn't know if the fact that they were both gone was a good thing or not. Even worse, he had checked the basement, and White had disappeared. _Max is definitely _not _going to be happy about this._ The thing that bothered him most was that Max would probably call the other X5s and they would come over, and Zack was more of a shoot-the-messenger type of guy. _Why didn't I just stay home? It's not like that lunch meeting was _that _important. _

As he walked back into the kitchen to check on the chicken in the oven, he heard the front door open and Max's familiar strides crossing the living room. When she turned the corner to see what the wonderful smell in the kitchen was, there was Logan, looking rather strained and nervous. She automatically crossed her arms. "Okay, what happened that I'm not going to like?" she teased. He usually took on that look when he somehow messed up a meal, although those times were unbelievably few and far between, so she wasn't currently taking his demeanor too seriously. "Did you burn the tip of a chicken leg?" That was definitely chicken she smelled, even though she didn't detect anything that seemed burnt.

Logan forced a smile and braced both hands on the table, drumming his fingers against the surface a few times before speaking. "Actually, I have something to tell you that you won't be very happy about."

"What?" Jondy asked as she walked around the corner. To Logan's inner horror, which he was struggling desperately not to show, Jondy was closely followed by Alec, Zack, and Brin. Max noticed the strain grow more evident around his eyes and she grinned. "Didn't I mention that I invited everyone over for supper? We still have enough leftovers from last night to add in with our food tonight so we can take care of all of us. Is that a problem?"

"Problem?" His smiled became even more forced, if that was possible. "No, of course not. There's always room for the family here. Could I talk to you in private for a moment?"

Zack, who had very quickly caught onto the other man's unease, crossed his arms and leaned against the frame of the entranceway into the hallway and living room, effectively blocking any escape routes. "If something's wrong, I think you should tell all of us. If it affects Max, it affects us."

Logan hated that self-satisfied glint in the X5's eyes. As everyone stared at him and waited for him to speak, the click of the front door opening caught their attention. "Hey, has supper been served yet?" Kay's voice called out. Everyone started to move in that direction to see why Kay had gone out, but Logan managed to slip to the front of the group. To his extreme joy, Kay was standing there, holding Paige and slipping her shoes off, with Ben just behind her closing the door.

Brin smiled at the sight of them together. They both looked more at ease somehow, and the fact that they looked that way while in each other's presence was definitely a good sign. "Where were you two?"

Kay smiled and walked over to them, lightly bouncing Paige in her arms. "It's a long story, but right now I'm starved. What's for dinner?" As everyone slowly made their way back into the kitchen, chatting lightly and relaxing with the knowledge that another day was over, Kay looked back over her shoulder to where Ben was standing at the back of the group, looking just as hungry as the others. Their eyes met and a brief smile flashed over both their faces. When Kay grabbed a handful of silverware in one hand and started to set the table with Paige nestled safely in her other arm, she knew that she had one more obstacle left; telling everyone that she had let Ames go to be with his son, but she also knew she could handle it. It had been a rough year for everyone, but now they were bringing the difficult part to a close, and starting off with the true healing process. With the prospect of a halfway normal life for the first time since she had been outside Manticore, acted out her role as the second key, and crossed over the black ice that life had placed in her path, she just couldn't wait to get started.

* * *

We're only human baby  
We walk on broken ground  
We lose our way, we come unwound

We're turnin' circles baby  
We're never satisfied  
We fall from grace, forget we can't fly  
But through all of the tears that we cry  
We'll survive

Cause when we're torn apart  
Shattered and scarred  
Love has the grace to save us  
We're just two tarnished hearts,  
But in each other's arms  
We become saints and angels

I love your imperfections  
I love your everything  
Your broken heart, your broken wings  
I love you when you hold me  
And when you turn away,  
I love you still, and I'm not afraid  
Cause I know you feel the same way  
And you'll stay

Cause when we're torn apart  
Shattered and scarred  
Love has the grace to save us  
We're just two tarnished hearts,  
But in each other's arms  
We become saints and angels

These feet of clay (feet of clay)  
They will not stray

Cause when we're torn apart  
Shattered and scarred  
Love has the grace to save us  
We're just two tarnished hearts,  
But in each other's arms  
We become saints and angels

**The End**

* * *

Author's Note: Well, the tale of Kay is finally finished. I know I left it pretty open-ended, but that's how I like leaving stories. It leaves some work up to the imagination. The song is "Saints & Angels" by Sara Evans. I love that song, and I thought it fit pretty well. Let me know what you think!


End file.
